JANUARY 30, 2025 – During a media interview today, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth affirmed the Defense Department’s commitment to working with other federal agencies to bolster security at the southern border.
“You saw on Day 1 from [President Donald J. Trump’s] executive orders, the military’s … commitment to protecting the territorial sovereignty of the southern border, which is a shift,” Hegseth said.
After emphasizing some of the steps DOD has taken to increase border security — including partnering with the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, sending National Guardsmen and active-duty Marines and soldiers to the border and strengthening the border with additional physical barriers — Hegseth spoke about detaining criminal migrants at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Earlier in the day, the president announced his intention to sign an executive order instructing DOD and DHS to prepare Guantanamo Bay for the detention of 30,000 criminal migrants.
“President Trump has been very clear with [migrant countries of origin] that if [they] aren’t willing to take [their] criminals back … then we will hold you accountable,” Hegseth said.
Noting that he served as an officer at Guantanamo Bay while on an active-duty National Guard deployment from 2004 to 2005, Hegseth said Guantanamo Bay is the “perfect place” to safely detain the migrants. He made clear that detaining migrants wouldn’t necessarily require the high level of security used to detain suspected terrorists during Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
“Americans think of ‘Gitmo’ as the images you see on your screen: the detention facilities with folks from the Taliban and al-Qaida … That’s one part of Guantanamo Bay,” Hegseth explained.
Hegseth said that the other part of the installation is a U.S. naval station that has provided migrant and refugee resettlement for several decades.
According to Naval Station Guantanamo Bay’s official website, the base has been used for “migrant operations, regional humanitarian relief and disaster assistance,” among many other activities during the installation’s history.
“This is not the camps,” Hegseth reiterated. “This is a temporary transit which is already the mission of Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, where we can plus-up thousands — and tens of thousands, if necessary — to humanely move illegals out of our country where they do not belong [and] back to the countries where they came from in proper process.”
Calling the Guantanamo operation a “plan in movement,” Hegseth also said that DOD is “ramping up” to expand the scope of deportations.
“President Trump is dead serious about getting illegal criminals out of our country,” Hegseth said. “And the DOD is not only willing to — it’s proud to — partner with DHS to defend the sovereignty of our southern border and advance that mission.”
By Matthew Olay, DOD News