Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth arrives at Guantanamo Bay, calls it 'front lines of the war' on southern border

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth arrived at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Tuesday, his first trip to the naval installation since being confirmed to his post in January. 

Hegseth, who served as a U.S. Army lieutenant at Guantánamo from 2004-05, was expected to receive briefings on all mission operations at the base, including the detention facility where illegal migrants deported from the United States are being housed before being flown to their native countries. 

"Arrived at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay on the front lines of the war against America's southern border," the secretary wrote on X. 

He was also expected to meet with troops at the base and aboard the USS Thomas Hudner. Images posted to Hegseth's X account show him meeting and eating with troops stationed at Gitmo. 

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"These warriors are directly supporting the apprehension and deportation of dangerous illegal aliens," he wrote. "We cannot thank them or their families enough."

The base is best known for detaining terrorism suspects, including those behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. President Donald Trump authorized the detention of illegal immigrants at the facility shortly after taking office on Jan. 20. 

In January, Trump said he wanted to expand immigrant detention centers at Guantánamo to hold as many as 30,000 people.

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"Some of them are so bad that we don't even trust the countries to hold them because we don't want them coming back, so we're going to send 'em out to Guantánamo," Trump said at the time. 

Last week, nearly 200 Venezuelan illegal immigrants arrested in the U.S. were flown back from Guantanamo Bay after Venezuela expressed interest in accepting its citizens. 

Earlier this month, two Venezuelan flights carried 190 illegal immigrants from the U.S. to the South American nation.

The U.S. government has alleged that Venezuelan illegal immigrants transferred to the naval base are members of the violent Tren de Aragua gang. Trump has turned the gang into the face of the alleged threat posed by immigrants living in the country illegally.