DEL RIO, Texas (NewsNation) — The first military flight deporting migrants from the U.S. to Guantanamo Bay landed in Cuba on Tuesday evening, according to a U.S. official. It was the first step in an expected surge in the number of migrants sent to the U.S. naval base.
President Donald Trump has eyed the facility as a holding center and said it has the capacity to hold as many as 30,000.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has called the location — which used to detain foreigners associated with the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks — a “perfect place” to house migrants. Additional U.S. troops have arrived at the facility in the past few days to help prepare.
The flights come just days after Trump agreed to a 30-day pause on his tariff threats against Mexico after the country pledged to send 10,000 members of the National Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border.
Trump and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced the monthlong pause on increased tariffs against each other after what Trump described on social media as a “very friendly conversation,” and he said he looked forward to the upcoming negotiations.
Trump said the talks would be headed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary nominee Howard Lutnick and high-level representatives of Mexico. Sheinbaum said she was reinforcing the border with 10,000 members of her country’s National Guard and that the U.S. government would commit “to work to stop the trafficking of high-powered weapons to Mexico.”
In 2019, when Mexico’s government also avoided tariffs from Trump’s administration, the government announced it would send 15,000 soldiers to its northern border.
The Associated Press and NewsNation partner The Hill contributed to this report.