Marines and soldiers have deployed to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba as part of President Donald Trump’s administration’s immigration crackdown involving the U.S. military.
Several hundred troops will provide security for a 30,000-person migrant facility at the U.S. military base in Cuba, according to plans announced last week by the White House.
There are currently 310 service members supporting the migrant “holding operations” with elements from U.S. Southern Command, U.S. Army South, and U.S. Marines with 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division. Over the weekend, 170 Marines deployed to the U.S. military base in Cuba, according to a spokesperson for U.S. Southern Command.
According to a separate Pentagon official, approximately 500 Marines have been approved to mobilize to Guantanamo Bay and roughly 500 soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division, based out of Fort Drum, New York, have been directed to mobilize to Texas to establish a Joint Task Force Headquarters for the southern border mission.
The deployments are the latest instance of active duty troop involvement in Trump’s promise to deport undocumented migrants from the U.S. and tighten security at the U.S. southern border. On Monday, Trump posted on Truth Social that Mexico would send 10,000 of its soldiers to the border to stop the flow of fentanyl and migrants into the U.S.
During the first week of the Trump administration, the Department of Defense announced military police and engineers from eight states were sent to the border. That same week, the U.S. Coast Guard began flying detained migrants to deportation sites in Texas and California.
In mid-January officials told Task & Purpose that soldiers with the 82nd Airborne and 10th Mountain Divisions could join operations on the southern border, but that they hadn’t been given “prepare to deploy” orders.
In late January, the New York National Guard said it was sending just over 100 soldiers from a military police company to Cuba, but the release indicated that they were supporting security for the detention facility where suspects of U.S. terrorist attacks, including the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, have been held for over two decades.