Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth visited Guantánamo Bay on Tuesday to inspect migrant operations and the war on terrorism detention facility. Hegseth, who served there in 2004-2005 and has previously reported on the base, noted a significant reduction in operations since his deployment, with only 15 terrorism-related detainees currently held at Camp 5. Additionally, 17 men designated for deportation are housed at Camp 6. Hegseth expressed enthusiasm for the migrant detention operation, which began in February, while reflecting on the past effectiveness of Guantánamo, lamenting its current state. Civil liberties lawyers are seeking access to the detainees.
On Tuesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth traveled to the U.S. Navy base at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba to review the current migrant operations as well as the detention activities related to the war on terrorism.
Having served as an Army lieutenant at Guantánamo during 2004-2005, Mr. Hegseth also visited the base in 2016. During that visit, he participated in a media tour as a Fox News correspondent and reported on life at the remote prison.
He has expressed positive sentiments about his deployment at the base, where he acted as a platoon leader for an infantry unit within the New Jersey National Guard. This unit was responsible for security operations during what was at the time a large-scale mission involving nearly 2,600 U.S. forces and over 600 detainees housed within a vast prison area on a bluff that faced the Caribbean Sea.
As of Tuesday, the operation he was inspecting had significantly decreased. The Defense Department currently detains 15 foreign men associated with the war on terrorism at a facility known as Camp 5, which includes six individuals facing charges in death-penalty cases linked to Al Qaeda’s attacks on September 11, 2001, and the U.S.S. Cole on October 12, 2000.
Adjacent to this, in a facility called Camp 6, the Departments of Homeland Security and Defense were on Tuesday detaining 17 men, aged between 23 and 62, who the Trump administration has designated for deportation. This group included seven from Honduras, four from Colombia, three from El Salvador, two from Guatemala, and one from Ecuador, as detailed in a document reviewed by The New York Times.
Notably, eight of these men were apprehended by Immigration and Customs Enforcement following President Trump’s inauguration.
Mr. Hegseth has shown support for the migrant detention initiative, which began accommodating detainees removed from the U.S. starting February 4. To date, it has held 178 other men, all of whom are Venezuelans, across two facilities located at the base.
In 2021, Mr. Hegseth voiced his concerns on Fox about the Guantánamo detention operation, referring to it as “a prison without a mission.”
“It got mucked up very, very early when left-wing lawyers and other protections came in,” he remarked, adding: “It could have been a great place to expeditiously interrogate, try and, you know, execute, because we are in a war.”
His recent visit coincides with efforts by civil liberties attorneys who are advocating for access to the detainees held by the immigration agency.