Miami.- The first military flight in the United States with deported migrants landed in The Guantanamo Naval BaseCuba, on Tuesday night, American official sources reported.
The White House confirmed This Wednesday, February 5 that the migrants moved belong to the Aragua Train, a criminal organization of Venezuelan origin with presence in several Latin American countries. Karoline Leavitt, spokesman for the Government of Donald Trump, declared at a press conference that immigration authorities are prioritizing the arrest and expulsion of “violent criminals” as part of the national security policy.
This is the first time in decades that this detention center, known for having housed terrorism suspects after the attacks of September 11, 2001, receives migrants in US custody.
The Aragua train, born in a Venezuelan prison more than a decade ago, has been identified as a serious threat to the security of the region. In July 2024, the administration of Joe Biden classified him as a “deadly criminal threat to Latin America.”
The total scale of its operations is unknown. While the gang has focused mainly on the traffic of people and other crimes aimed at migrants, it has also been linked to extortion, kidnapping, money laundering and drug trafficking, according to the asset control office Foreigners (OFAC) of the US Treasury Department.
The group of 10 migrants was transferred in a military plane from El Paso, Texas, and is already in a detention center in Guantanamo. According to a statement from the Pentagon cited by the EFE agency, its permanence in the base will be “temporary” until its final destination is determined, whether its country of origin or other territory that accepts to receive them.
The Trump administration has intensified its measures against undocumented immigration, with the aim of executing the largest deportation campaign in the country’s history. In their first weeks in office, more than 8,000 people have been arrested in different states, according to official data. Of this total, around 400 were released due to the lack of capacity in detention centers or for serious medical reasons.
President Trump has defended these actions as a strategy to stop the entry of “illegal criminal foreigners.” In recent statements, he said that some detainees represent a danger so high that they do not even trust that their countries of origin keep them in custody, so they chose to send them to Guantanamo.
In addition to using this base as a detention center, the Trump Administration has ordered the customs immigration and control service (ICE) to increase the number of daily arrests, with the goal of capturing between 1,200 and 1,500 people per day.
On the other hand, the Secretary of State, Marco Rubioreported that the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, has agreed to imprison criminals considered highly dangerous that are in US custody, including some citizens and legal residents of the US.
The deportation of alleged members of the Aragua train to Guantanamo marks a precedent in the migratory and security policy of the United States, reinforcing the Trump administration strategy to combat transnational organized crime through more severe detention and deportation measures.
