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

"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

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.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE

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.

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.