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First images released of migrant flights to Gitmo as Trump ramps up deportations

The first flight of migrants to Guantanamo Bay took off Tuesday, and Fox News Digital obtained some of the first images of migrants boarding a military plane for a detention center.

Trump announced last week he would instruct the Pentagon to prepare the site to hold around 30,000 “criminal illegal aliens” at the military base.

“I can also confirm that today the first flights from the United States to Guantanamo Bay with illegal migrants are underway,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday.

US BEGINS FLYING MIGRANTS TO GUANTANAMO BAY

This image shows migrants boarding a flight to Guantanamo Bay. (Department of Homeland Security)

“And so President Trump, Pete Hegseth and Kristi Noem are already delivering on this promise to utilize that capacity at Gitmo for illegal criminals who have broken our nation’s immigration laws and then have further committed heinous crimes against lawful American citizens here at home.”

The first flight was scheduled to leave Fort Bliss with about a dozen migrants on board. They will be separated from the 15 detainees already there, who include alleged 9/11 planners, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

“Some of them are so bad, we don’t even trust their countries to hold them because we don’t want them coming back,” Trump said last week of the migrants being sent there. “We’re going to send them to Guantanamo.”

TRUMP-ERA SOUTHERN BORDER SEES MIGRANT ENCOUNTERS PLUMMET BY OVER 60% AS NEW POLICIES KICK IN

A migrant prepares to board a flight to Guantanamo Bay. (Department of Homeland Security)

About 380 service members are supporting the holding operations at Naval Station Guantanamo, U.S. Southern Command said Tuesday, adding that the number of service members will continue to fluctuate based on DHS requirements.

The Trump administration has not said how much it would cost to expand Guantanamo, which was established in 2002 to detain foreign militants after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

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This image shows migrants boarding a military flight to Guantanamo Bay. (Department of Homeland Security)

It’s part of a broader effort by the administration to launch a “historic” deportation operation. Trump announced Saturday that Venezuela had agreed to take back its nationals who are in the U.S. illegally, days after a diplomatic spat with Colombia that resulted in that nation also agreeing to take back flights of illegal immigrants.

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Trump on his first day in office deployed the military to the border and declared a national emergency, while also enacting measures to prevent migrants from being able to claim asylum in the U.S.

DHS has since taken a number of measures to free up ICE agents to arrest and deport illegal immigrants, and officers are frequently arresting over 1,000 a day.

Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin contributed to this report.

Adam Shaw is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital, primarily covering immigration and border security.

He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter.

February 4, 2025
Counter-drug sea drones utilized by Navy as Trump ramps up military resources at the border

Unmanned sea drones are on the prowl to interdict drug smugglers in America’s waters as part of a new Navy operation.

The operation will test the Navy’s use of maritime drones, in its early stages, and apply lessons learned to missions all across the globe.

Dubbed Operation Southern Spear, the Navy’s 4th Fleet will use “a heterogeneous mix of Robotic and Autonomous Systems (RAS) to support the detection and monitoring of illicit trafficking while learning lessons for other theaters,” a news release said on Monday.

DEMOCRATS PRESS ARMY SECRETARY NOMINEE IF ‘READINESS’ AFFECTED BY SOUTHERN BORDER DEPLOYMENTS

Saildrone Voyagers SD-2040 and SD-2041 equipped with 200W radars in the Caribbean Sea. (MediaValet)

As President Donald Trump shuts down the U.S. southern and northern borders, smugglers are expected to look for alternative routes to carry out their illegal trafficking business. Human and drug trafficking cartels have increasingly turned to the nation’s maritime borders to smuggle weapons, narcotics and people into the country.

According to recent data, more illicit drugs were seized at sea by Customs and Border Patrol’s Air and Marine Operation (AMO) in 2023 – 304,000 pounds – than by land – 241,000 pounds.

Southern Spear will operate as part of Joint Task Force South – a Defense Department task force made up of Navy, Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection, as well as 20 partner countries focused on counter-narcotics and maritime security in the Carribean, Central and South America.

TRUMP THREATENS TO TAP ALLIES FOR MILITARY SHIPBUILDING IF US CAN’T PRODUCE

Soldiers assigned to the 192nd Quartermaster Company from Milan, Ohio, monitor the southern border near Santa Teresa, New Mexico, Jan. 28, 2025. (Department of Defense)

Included in the operation are 20 high-endurance Saildrone Voyager unmanned surface vehicles, equipped with a newly upgraded sensor suite, according to the press release. The vehicles are 10 meters long and can surveil thousands of square miles of water per day to look for smugglers.

The drones have already sailed the Persian Gulf under the Navy’s Hybrid Fleet Campaign and Project 33 and as part of Operation Windward Stack, operated by the 4th Fleet throughout 2024. They offer a 95% detection rate and are contractor owned and operated. This means that SailDrone operates the surveillance platform while the Defense Department purchases the data.

ARMY SAW SPIKE IN DEADLY AVIATION ACCIDENTS IN YEAR BEFORE DC PLANE CRASH DISASTER

“As land borders become more secure, traffickers will exploit maritime pathways more than ever. We’re honored to serve, providing autonomous around-the-clock maritime surveillance to help stop smugglers before they reach our shores,” said Tom Alexander, Saildrone VP of government relations.

Already, nearly 90% of cocaine is trafficked at sea, according to the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS). Cartels look to exploit gaps in surveillance coverage that the new mission will look to plug with maritime drones.

Army Maj. Gen. Henry S. Dixon, left, Joint Task Force North commander, discusses southern border operations with Marines assigned to the 1st Combat Engineer Battalion, 1st Marine Division, near San Ysidro, Califorrnia, Jan. 28, 2025. (Department of Defense )

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Utilizing U.S. military might to disrupt the flow of human and drug trafficking at the southern border has been a top priority for Trump.

Upon taking office, the president immediately sent an additional 1,500 troops and additional assets to the border. Over the weekend, the U.S. secured an agreement with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who will send 10,000 Mexican troops to the U.S.-Mexico border in exchange for a one-month delay in Trump’s threat of 25% tariffs on goods flowing in from Mexico.

February 3, 2025
Elon Musk’s DOGE ramps up hiring

FOX Business’ Lydia Hu reports on the Department of Government Efficiency’s latest plan to cut spending during an appearance on ‘Varney & Co.’

The Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is making another hiring push, asking for “world-class talent” to apply to work for the government cost-cutting initiative – and making it easier to apply than before.

DOGE, voluntarily led by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, has officially launched a webpage where candidates may fill out an application to join the team, after launching its website last week. Prior to the hiring page, DOGE was accepting applications through X direct messages.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks during an America PAC town hall on Oct. 26, 2024 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images / Getty Images)

“The DOGE Team is looking for world-class talent to work long hours identifying/eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse,” DOGE said in a message on X on Sunday. “These are full-time, salaried positions for software engineers, InfoSec engineers, financial analysts, HR professionals, and, in general, all competent/caring people.”

ELON MUSK’S DOGE SETTING ITS SIGHTS ON THE PENNY

When DOGE officially opened hiring in November, the initiative asked for “super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting,” to apply, saying none of the positions would be paid.

Azoria CEO James Fishback discusses DOGE’s mission under President Donald Trump on ‘The Bottom Line.’

However, DOGE announced earlier this month that it is currently recruiting a “very small number” of full-time salaried software and info security engineers. The account also posted on Dec. 27 that it plans to hire for full-time human resources, IT and finance positions.

ELON MUSK’S DOGE FACES FIRST LEGAL CHALLENGE WITHIN HOURS OF TRUMP INAUGURATION

DOGE, which President Donald Trump officially established via executive order upon his return to the White House last week, aims to slash government waste and provide increased transparency when it comes to government spending.

Elon Musk, President Donald Trump (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images / Getty Images)

Some of the cuts proposed by Musk include simplifying the U.S. tax code, auditing the Pentagon, ending federal employees’ remote work, reevaluating expired congressional programs, modernizing IT systems and protecting federal health care and Social Security benefits, to name a few.

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For now, DOGE is operating out of glass-walled office space in Washington, D.C., leased by SpaceX, about four blocks away from the White House. DOGE employees are required to come to the office and work in person.

FOX Business’ Kevin Gora and Kristen Altus contributed to this report.

January 27, 2025
Trump admin ramps up ICE quota to 1,200-1,500 arrests per day: report

President Donald Trump’s administration is pushing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to increase the number of arrests per day from a few hundred to between at least 1,200 to 1,500 people, according to a new report on Monday.

Citing four sources who spoke on condition of anonymity about a purported internal call with ICE officials on Saturday, The Washington Post first reported about the new objective, categorizing the 1,200 to 1,500 daily targets as “quotas.”

During the call, each ICE field office was told to aim for 75 arrests per day and that management would be held responsible if the quotas were not reached, they said. The Post also reported that current and former ICE officials said that they are concerned that the quotas make it more likely that agents will “engage in more indiscriminate enforcement tactics or face accusations of civil rights violations.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt reportedly told the Post via an email that, “your story is false,” but did not elaborate. When asked about the report, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) clarified, telling Fox News Digital, “Goals is the correct phrasing.”

ICE ARRESTS NEARLY 1,000 ILLEGAL ALIENS DURING SIXTH DAY OF TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

ICE agents, along with other federal law enforcement agencies, attend a pre-enforcement meeting in Chicago on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. (Christopher Dilts/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“The bottom line is DHS enforcement, whether they be at the border or the interior, needs to keep and get criminal aliens out of the country,” the spokesperson added.

Fox News Digital also reached out to Leavitt and ICE regarding the report.

Later in its report, the Washington Post cited another unnamed ICE official who reportedly said that the agency already has a long list of criminal suspects, so agents could continue to target public safety and national security threats to reach the quotas.

Last week, acting DHS Secretary Benjamine Huffman rescinded a directive that had prevented ICE from carrying out immigration enforcement at sensitive locations such as churches, schools and doctor’s offices. Huffman said the reversal ensured criminals, including murderers and rapists, cannot use those areas to hide. Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, further defended the decision on Sunday, explaining that many MS-13 gang members are often around age 14 and ICE agents are well-trained and should have the discretion to weed out public safety and national security threats.

ICE agents knock on the door of a residence during a multi-agency targeted enforcement operation in Chicago on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. (Christopher Dilts/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

In an appearance on ABC’s “This Week,” Homan said the number of immigration-related arrests would “steadily increase” as he continues Trump’s mass deportation plan.

“The aperture right now is constrained to public safety threats, national security threats as a smaller population,” Homan said. “We’re going to do the same priority base as President Trump’s promise. But as that aperture opens, there’ll be more arrests nationwide.”

In sanctuary cities, Homan said, ICE is locked out of jails. That means instead of being able to safely apprehend targets already in custody before they are released back onto the streets, ICE agents must conduct enforcement operations in the community, increasing the risk of collateral arrests of illegal immigrants not charged with violent offenses but who law enforcement find associating with criminal illegal immigrants and take into custody as well.

TRUMP’S ICE RACKS UP HUNDREDS OF ARRESTS, INCLUDING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS ARRESTED FOR HORROR CRIMES

“Sweeps don’t occur anywhere,” Homan told Phil McGraw, known as Dr. Phil, inside the ICE Command Center in Chicago on Sunday night. The border czar and television doctor teamed up to showcase on McGraw’s streaming service, Meritt TV, how ICE operations are targeting violent offenders. Another video shared Sunday night showed Dr. Phil questioning an illegal immigrant, a convicted sex offender from Thailand who federal agents took into custody in Chicago.

ICE agents walk down a street during a multi-agency targeted enforcement operation in Chicago on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. (Christopher Dilts/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

For the past decade, ICE has had a staffing level of about 5,500 officers nationwide dedicated to immigration enforcement, according to the Post.

Trump has directed Homeland Security Investigations, the DHS agency focused on counterterrorism, drug smuggling, human trafficking cases and child exploitation, to also assist with immigration enforcement operations.

Last week, Huffman also issued a directive giving Department of Justice law enforcement officials in the U.S. Marshals, Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and Federal Bureau of Prisons authority to investigate and apprehend illegal immigrants.

TRUMP’S ICE RACKS UP HUNDREDS OF ARRESTS, INCLUDING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS ARRESTED FOR HORROR CRIMES

“Thanks to the last Administration’s open border policies, we’ve seen violent criminals and gang members terrorize American communities,” Huffman said in a statement. “Mobilizing these law enforcement officials will help fulfill President Trump’s promise to the American people to carry out mass deportations. For decades, efforts to find and apprehend illegal aliens have not been given proper resources. This is a major step in fixing that problem.”

Danielle Wallace is a breaking news and politics reporter at Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to [email protected] and on X: @danimwallace.

January 27, 2025
‘Tip of the spear’: Trump ramps up unscripted media blitz after years of reclusive Biden ducking questions

President Donald Trump is quickly showcasing his accessibility to reporters days after returning to the White House, a stark contrast to his Democratic predecessor who frequently ducked questions and took scripted questions from reporters.

“We’ll take a few questions,” the president said on Tuesday, after announcing what’s said to be a half-trillion dollar investment by top tech companies to vastly expand the nation’s artificial intelligence infrastructure.

Trump then took questions for half an hour from reporters gathered at the White House.

It was the second straight day the new president held an informal, off-the-cuff and freewheeling news conference with reporters.

HEAD HERE FOR FOX NEWS UPDATES ON PRESIDENT TRUMP’S FIRST 100 DAYS IN THE WHITE HOUSE

President Donald Trump speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

On Monday, hours after he was inaugurated at the U.S. Capitol, Trump took questions for 45 minutes as he sat in the Oval Office and simultaneously signed an avalanche of executive orders and actions. The back and forth with reporters was carried live by Fox News and CNN.

Trump on Wednesday is taking questions from Fox News’ Sean Hannity, for his first Oval Office interview since returning to the White House.

The sit-down will run at 9 p.m. ET on Fox News’ “Hannity.”

FOX EXCLUSIVE: TRUMP SHARES LETTER BIDEN LEFT FOR HIM

“The president is the tip of the spear and he’s been active in wanting to go out and communicate both his successes and the challenges that we have, and he’s been active in wanting to solve those,” deputy White House chief of staff for communications Taylor Budowich told Fox News.

President Donald Trump takes questions from reporters as he signs executive orders in the Oval Office at the White House on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, 2025. (Reuters/Carlos Barria)

The accessibility with reporters showcases Trump’s unscripted nature, and it stands in stark contrast with former President Joe Biden, whose interactions with reporters were more limited and at times tightly stage-managed.

“Did Biden ever do news conferences like this?” Trump asked on Monday, as he appeared to take a jab at the former president.

TRUMP’S AVALANCHE OF EXECUTIVE ORDERS

Julie Mason, the host of a national radio program, veteran White House reporter and former elected board member of the White House Correspondents Association, told Fox News “it is completely refreshing to have a president who is accessible, available.”

“He’ll answer any question you throw at him. He’s not always happy with the questions he gets, but he engages with journalists. That’s the most important thing. Their job is to inform the public about what is going on at the White House and having direct access to the president is essential to that,” Mason emphasized.

She added that “Biden was kept very much under wraps. Reporters rarely got a chance to ask him anything. It was a huge frustration in the press corps. This is completely different.”

President Biden listens to a question during a news conference in the East Room of the White House, Jan. 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

Trump is known for his extended interactions with reporters. He held two unconstrained news conferences at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, during his transition back to the presidency.

And while for years he has accused reporters of being “fake news” and “the enemy of the people,” and while his answers to their questions keep fact-checkers busy, his exchanges with the media are often free-flowing, without any aides selecting reporters to ask questions.

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Budowich says Trump’s accessibility and off-the-cuff style are contributing factors to his political success.

“The reason we won this election is because of Donald Trump. The reason why we are going to succeed in executing his agenda is because of Donald Trump,” he argued.

And he touted that Trump “in the first two and a half days, has accomplished what most presidents fail to accomplish in their first two years.”

Paul Steinhauser is a politics reporter based in New Hampshire.

January 23, 2025