Plans for New Facility At Cuba Base Ramp Up

Migrants are flown to Guantanamo as Trump calls for a much bigger facility

- By Nancy A. Youssef, Tarini Parti and Jess Bravin

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem made a trip Friday to Guantanamo Bay, as the Trump administration steps up use of the naval base in Cuba in seeking to emphasize toughness against migrants it says have criminal backgrounds.

Noem visited the migrant detention and processing center and received tours and briefings on the base, better known for its notorious prison for terror suspects. In a video that Noem posted on X, she said she was "checking out some of the operations that we're standing up to house the worst of the worst." "Illegal criminals that are in the United States of Americathey won't be there for long," Noem said standing in front of a chain-linked fence with barbed wires. Her trip comes as a C-130 aircraft carried just under 20 passengers from Texas to Guantanamo Bay on Friday, defense officials said.

Earlier this past week, two C-17 military flights each carrying roughly a dozen migrants departed from Fort Bliss, Texas, for Guantanamo Bay. The flights have carried migrants who are in the U.S. illegally and who have been deemed high-risk by the Trump administration.

A flight that arrived on the base Thursday carried 13 migrants who were known gang members from Venezuela, according to a Homeland Security official.

Their Department crimes included homicide, weapons trafficking, distribution of dangerous drugs, assault and robbery, the DHS official said.

Officials didn't provide further details of the detainees' alleged crimes or whether any had pending immigration claims.