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White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt shared images on Friday showing migrants lined up and handcuffed while boarding a military aircraft, writing: “The deportation flights have begun.”
Migrants are typically handcuffed before boarding deportation flights. However, the use of military planes to send them back to their home countries is noteworthy. It is unclear where the migrants came from, but it is believed they were individuals who had recently crossed the border and were in Border Patrol custody.
Migrants board a military aircraft to be deported from the U.S.
Migrants board a military aircraft to be deported from the U.S. Image from the X account of Karoline Leavitt, White House Press Secretary.
“The president is sending a strong and clear message to the world: if you enter the United States of America illegally, you will face severe consequences,” she wrote in her X post.
CNN reported this week that a total of four planes-two C-17s and two C-130s-were being deployed to San Diego and El Paso to support repatriation flights, according to a senior military official speaking to the press on Wednesday.
The first flights departed from Biggs Army Air Field bound for Guatemala on Thursday night, according to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official.
Between 75 and 80 Guatemalans were repatriated on those initial flights, the source said.
Since announcing his re-election campaign, Trump has promised to take a hardline approach to immigration and undo Biden-era policies that he claimed were too lenient and allowed a large influx of undocumented migrants.
On Monday, the president signed executive orders giving Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) more freedom to conduct enforcement actions in sensitive areas, expanding the pool of undocumented migrants subject to expedited removal, and ending birthright citizenship-a measure that has faced strong opposition from constitutional experts and Democrat-led states and cities, which have already challenged the move in court.