Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth Vows to Humanely Move Criminal Migrants Out of the Country
In his first interview since being confirmed last week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth emphasized that the United States will “humanely move” criminal migrants out of the country and work with other agencies to secure the southern border.
Hegseth, a former “Fox & Friends Weekend” co-host, discussed President Donald Trump’s memorandum to prepare a 30,000-person migrant facility at Guantanamo Bay, a U.S. Naval base in Cuba. The facility is considered a “perfect place” to hold criminal migrants “safely in the interim” as the process to repatriate them to their homelands plays out.
Trump previously stated that the facility will “detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people.” Hegseth clarified that criminal migrants will not be held in the same facilities as terrorism suspects.
“This is a temporary transit, which is already the mission of naval station Guantanamo Bay, where we can plus up thousands and tens of thousands if necessary, to humanely move illegals out of our country where they do not belong, back to the countries where they came from in proper process,” Hegseth said.
Hegseth also discussed his plan to make the Department of Defense “color-blind” and “merit-based” to focus on “fighting and winning wars.” He vowed to “rip out root and branch” diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives from the military, stating that DEI undermines merit-based selection and treats everyone equally based on performance.
Hegseth emphasized that the Defense Department is willing to partner with the Department of Homeland Security to defend the sovereignty of the southern border and advance the mission.