White House officials said Tuesday that the government has begun flying migrants intended for deportation to Guantanamo Bay as a temporary stop.

Two flights left from Fort Bliss, Texas, to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to the Wall Street Journal, while White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed, “Today, the first flights from the United States to Guantanamo Bay with illegal migrants are underway.”

President Donald Trump signed an executive order last week directing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem to expand the Migrant Operations Center at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to “full capacity to provide additional detention space for high-priority criminal aliens unlawfully present.”

The president said he wanted the facility to be able to hold 30,000 migrants.

Hegseth approved the deployment of about 500 Marines to Guantanamo Bay and another 500 Army soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division Headquarters to Texas to establish a Joint Task Force Headquarters for the Southern Border mission, according to a defense official. More than 150 of the troops are already there, according to U.S. Southern Command.

Defense officials have said more troops will likely be deployed to the southern border.

The secretary visited troops along the border on Monday.

“To the cartels: All options are on the table,” Hegseth said Monday. “We will secure our border. Because of President Donald Trump, this is a new era at the southern border, a new era of determination, a new era of cooperation. And at the Defense Department, we are proud to be a part of it.”

The Trump administration has made border security a top priority for its first 100 days, a multifaceted effort that includes stopping illegal immigration at the border and deporting thousands of migrants already in the United States.

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Guantanamo Bay is most commonly known as the place where the military houses terrorists, though there are separate facilities that have been used in the past to house migrants. There are still 15 terrorists held in those facilities.

Former President Joe Biden tried to close the prison during his presidency but was unable to, though under his administration, the total population of detainees fell from 40.