THIS is the dramatic moment shackled migrants are marched into the hellhole jail Guantanamo Bay after being flown in from the US.
A second batch of prisoners was today banged up in the terrorist centre after Trump vowed to crack down on illegal migrants.
Prisoners on today’s flight – wanted for a range of violent crimes – were shipped over from El Paso, Texas, to the max-security prison in Cuba.
They were members of the deadly Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang.
Today’s wave came 48 hours after the first planeload which left Fort Bliss, Texas, on Tuesday – transporting members of the same gang.
A recently unveiled video of the flight, shared by the Department of Defense, depicts prisoners being escorted off a military plane with their hands bound.
They are heavily patted-down on the tarmac before being escorted to vans and driven off into the darkness.
Today, 13 individuals arrived, including a convicted gang member and another individual who confessed to being on the run in Venezuela for acts of armed robbery and attempted murder.
He reached the US after busting out of jail.
The reel of crimes the group is accused of also includes drug possession, robbery, assault, fraud, and entering the US illegally.
They will be locked up alongside 9/11 suspects and other terrorists.
The Tren de Aragua gang is an international organised crime group from Venezuela – designated as terrorists by the US.
The gang, believed to be over 5,000-strong, has been labelled “high-threat” by Homeland Security.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem stated on Tuesday: “President Donald Trump has emphasized his stance: Guantanamo Bay is designated for the most dangerous offenders. This initiative commences today.”
Trump’s plan, announced last week, involves expanding the base’s migrant detention center to hold up to 30,000 people—doubling the US’s current capacity for detaining undocumented migrants.
His administration is in talks with a private shipping container company to provide temporary facilities to house and process migrants before they are deported, according to Semafor reports.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement is reportedly making plans with Phoenix-based Willscot to rent the company’s mobile containers.
The facility will be run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), with US military personnel already on-site setting up tents to house the new arrivals.
Trump has made clear why he’s sending detainees to the heavily fortified naval base.
He said: “Some of them [the migrants] are so bad we don’t even trust the countries to hold them, because we don’t want them coming back.
“So we’re going to send them to Guantanamo […] it’s a tough place to get out.”
What is Guantanamo Bay?
GUANTANAMO Bay (Gitmo) is a US naval base in southeastern Cuba, best known for its military prison, where terror suspects have been held since 2002.
The base, covering 45 square miles, has been under US control since 1903, despite Cuba demanding its return.
Established after 9/11, the Guantanamo Bay detention camp was used to hold suspected terrorists, including alleged al-Qaeda and Taliban operatives.
Detainees have been held without trial for years, with reports of torture and harsh interrogation methods sparking global outrage.
Today, only a few dozen prisoners remain, but it is still a symbol of controversial US counterterrorism policies.
Guantanamo also houses a migrant detention center, used for decades to hold people intercepted at sea.
Trump is now expanding it to detain thousands of undocumented migrants, a move Cuba has condemned as “brutal.”
The US pays Cuba $4,085 per year in rent for the base — money Cuba refuses to cash, as it considers Guantanamo illegally occupied.
