The top U.S. homeland security official got a firsthand look at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, visiting the U.S. naval base in Cuba on Friday, posting video of what appears to be a third flight of “high-threat illegal aliens” to arrive at the facility.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem shared details of her visit on her official account on the X social media platform, promising, “Vicious gang members will no longer have safe haven in our country.”
Noem did not share details about how many detainees were offloaded from what appeared to be a military cargo jet or about the crimes with which they are charged or of which they are suspected of having committed.
The Homeland Security Department and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have yet to respond to requests for details.
U.S. Southern Command, which oversees operations at Guantanamo Bay, did not comment on the number of flights but told VOA Saturday that the detention facility is now housing “over three dozen individuals.”
SOUTHCOM also said it “is prepared to support operations for holding illegal aliens as directed by the Department of Defense” and that any new arrivals “will be treated safely and humanely in accordance with international humanitarian standards.”
Immigrants’ rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, on Friday sent DHS, the State Department and the Pentagon a letter demanding information and immediate access to the individuals sent to the prison facility at Guantanamo Bay.
“The Constitution, and federal and international law prohibit the government from using Guantánamo as a legal black hole,” the groups stated. “We therefore request that the government provide our organizations access to the noncitizens detained at Guantánamo so that those individuals will have access to legal counsel, and so advocates and the public can understand the conditions under which the government is detaining them.”
Noem, in another post on X late Friday, said she was at Guantanamo Bay “checking out some of the operations we’re standing up to house the worst of the worst and illegal criminals that are in the United States of America.”
“They won’t be there for long,” she added, while also thanking U.S. President Donald Trump for his hard work to “make America safe again.”
Noem’s visit to Guantanamo Bay came a day after the arrival of a second flight of “high-threat illegal aliens,” whom she described on social media as “murderers & vicious gang members.”
In a separate post, earlier Friday, Noem said the detainees were all Venezuelan gang members. She said one detainee had confessed to murder, while others were wanted for attempted murder, assault, weapons trafficking and impersonation.
A U.S. official, speaking to VOA on the condition of anonymity to discuss the operation, said Thursday’s flight aboard a U.S. military cargo plane carried 13 “high threat” individuals.
DHS has not yet provided charging documents or other details regarding the crimes the detainees are accused of committing.
The first 10 undocumented migrants arrived at the detention facility Tuesday, also on board a C-17. Officials have said all the migrants are being held in jail cells under the supervision of officers with ICE.
Homeland security officials said the 10 migrants who arrived Tuesday were members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan street gang with transnational reach. Officials did not say when or how they were first taken into custody.
The White House has announced plans to designate Tren de Aragua as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
U.S. defense officials have called the detention of the high-threat migrants at Guantanamo Bay detention facility a temporary measure.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Friday emphasized the military’s commitment under President Donald Trump to secure the U.S. southern border with Mexico.
“We’ve seen an invasion,” Hegseth told a town hall meeting with Pentagon employees. “From people all around the world who I’m sure many of them want to seek a better life. I understand that.”
“But we also don’t know who millions of them are, what their intentions are, why they’re here,” he said. “That creates a very real national security threat.”
Since Trump’s executive order last month, the Pentagon has deployed hundreds of Marines to Guantanamo to expand the facilities to support holding operations for undocumented immigrants.
That includes preparing the detention center, known mostly for housing military prisoners and terror suspects, including those involved in the September 11, 2001, attacks and members of the Taliban.
It also includes setting up tents and other facilities to house non-violent migrants on another section of the base to prepare for as many as 30,000 migrants who will stay there until they can be deported to their countries of origin or to other countries willing to take them.
Closing Guantanamo
Democratic administrations under Barack Obama and Joe Biden had sought to close the detention camp, which was built by the George W. Bush administration in 2002, following the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan that began shortly after the 9/11 attacks of 2001.
Human rights groups have criticized the Trump administration’s move to use Guantanamo as a holding center for migrants, some warning it would amount to a human rights catastrophe.
At its height during the global war on terror, the detention facility held about 680 prisoners. As of January 6, there were just 15 detainees at the facility, according to the Pentagon.
Before being used to detain terror suspects, the U.S. naval facility also was used to house migrants from Cuba and Haiti in the early 1990s.
Carla Babb, Patsy Widakuswara, Aline Barros contributed to this story.
