Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth traveled to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base on Tuesday to visit the migrant detention center the department restarted using in recent weeks.

The military deployed hundreds of service members to the base after President Donald Trump ordered the departments of Defense and Homeland Security to use it to house dangerous migrants awaiting deportation.

“It was an honor to meet with servicemembers assigned to Joint Task Force Southern Guard here at Guantanamo Bay,” Hegseth said on social media. “These are dangerous criminals and Guantanamo is the safest place to house them while waiting for deportation flights.”

The president declared the facility should be built up to hold up to 30,000 migrants.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement flew 177 of the 178 migrant detainees on several flights destined for Honduras last week, emptying the prison of migrants. Once in Honduras, Venezuelan planes bound for Caracas took over the second leg of the repatriation flights, preventing U.S. planes from flying into Venezuela.

There are roughly 850 troops — 700 Army and Marine service members combined with Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard, and civilian personnel — at Guantanamo Bay supporting the DHS-led mission, according to a U.S. Southern Command spokesperson.

BORDER EXPERTS WARN OF VIOLENT PUSHBACK FROM CARTELS AMID TRUMP CRACKDOWN

Hegseth, who served as an Army lieutenant at Guantanamo Bay from 2004-2005, has touted the department’s focus on supporting the administration’s deportation of undocumented migrants.

He took his former colleague, Fox News host Laura Ingraham, on the trip to Guantanamo Bay, which is most famous for housing alleged terrorists. The 15 alleged terrorists who are still there are housed separately from the migrants.