Why Trump’s controversial Guantanamo decision is making headlines

“Most people don’t even know about it. We have 30,000 beds in Guantanamo to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people. This will double our capacity immediately,” Trump said.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the camp would be used to house “the worst of the worst”.

The first flight, a C17 plane from El Paso in Texas carrying “high-threat immigrants”, landed at the base on Tuesday evening.

Nearly all the 800 Muslim men once held at the base in Cuba have gone and only about 15 are still in custody – leaving accommodation spare for those migrants deemed to pose the highest risk.

The Venezuelans have been put into a 200-cell medium-security building adjacent to the high-security wing, which held the most dangerous al-Qaeda members, including those involved in plotting the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Trump has pledged to carry out the largest mass deportation in US history, with an estimated 11 million undocumented migrants earmarked for expulsion.

Priority has been given to removing “criminal aliens” – 7000 have already been picked up by Ice.

Unlike other illegal migrants earmarked for removal who are held by the Department of Homeland Security, these Venezuelans are in the custody of the US Department of Defence.

“President Donald Trump told the American people he’d arrest and deport members of the brutal Tren de Aragua gang and he’s doing just that,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

“Illegal immigrant criminal gangs like Tren de Aragua will no longer be able to terrorise American communities under President Trump’s leadership.”

The Venezuelans were picked up in an early-morning raid on an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado.

Trump pinpointed Aurora in the election campaign during a visit to the city.

“We will not be conquered. We will reclaim our sovereignty. And Colorado will vote for Trump as a protest and signal to the world that we are not going to take it anymore.”

Tren de Aragua, which originated in a Venezuelan prison, was designated a significant transnational criminal organisation by the Biden administration.

Before arriving in the US, the gang conducted a reign of terror across South America, wreaking havoc in Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Chile and Peru.