Throughout a media interview at the moment, Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth affirmed the Protection Division’s dedication to working with different federal companies to bolster safety on the southern border.
“You noticed on Day 1 from [President Donald J. Trump’s] govt orders, the army’s … dedication to defending the territorial sovereignty of the southern border, which is a shift,” Hegseth mentioned.
After emphasizing among the steps DOD has taken to extend border safety — together with partnering with the Division of Homeland Safety and U.S. Customs and Border Safety, sending Nationwide Guardsmen and active-duty Marines and troopers to the border and strengthening the border with further bodily boundaries — Hegseth spoke about detaining legal migrants at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Earlier within the day, the president introduced his intention to signal an govt order instructing DOD and DHS to arrange Guantanamo Bay for the detention of 30,000 legal migrants.
“President Trump has been very clear with [migrant countries of origin] that if [they] aren’t prepared to take [their] criminals again … then we are going to maintain you accountable,” Hegseth mentioned.
Noting that he served as an officer at Guantanamo Bay whereas on an active-duty Nationwide Guard deployment from 2004 to 2005, Hegseth mentioned Guantanamo Bay is the “good place” to soundly detain the migrants. He made clear that detaining migrants would not essentially require the excessive degree of safety used to detain suspected terrorists throughout Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
“People consider ‘Gitmo’ as the pictures you see in your display: the detention amenities with people from the Taliban and al-Qaida … That is one a part of Guantanamo Bay,” Hegseth defined.
Hegseth mentioned that the opposite a part of the set up is a U.S. naval station that has offered migrant and refugee resettlement for a number of a long time.
Based on Naval Station Guantanamo Bay’s official web site, the bottom has been used for “migrant operations, regional humanitarian aid and catastrophe help,” amongst many different actions through the set up’s historical past.
“This isn’t the camps,” Hegseth reiterated. “This can be a momentary transit which is already the mission of Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, the place we are able to plus-up 1000’s — and tens of 1000’s, if essential — to humanely transfer illegals out of our nation the place they don’t belong [and] again to the international locations the place they got here from in correct course of.”
Calling the Guantanamo operation a “plan in motion,” Hegseth additionally mentioned that DOD is “ramping up” to increase the scope of deportations.
“President Trump is lifeless severe about getting unlawful criminals out of our nation,” Hegseth mentioned. “And the DOD isn’t solely prepared to — it is proud to — associate with DHS to defend the sovereignty of our southern border and advance that mission.”