Trump Uses Military to Send Deportees to Guatemala, El Salvador
- Pictures show shackled migrants being loaded onto planes
- One refugee advocate calls the move ‘theater of the absurd’
Migrants along the US-Mexico border in Juarez, Mexico. President Donald Trump has vowed to target an estimated 11 million people who are in the country illegally.
Photographer: David Peinado/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
The Trump administration began sending deportees on US military planes back to Guatemala and El Salvador, according to people familiar with the matter, as it looks to demonstrate that it’s acting on campaign promises to return millions of migrants to their home countries.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the start of military flights in a post on X that included a picture of shackled men boarding a cargo plane, without saying their destination. The Pentagon first announced that it planned to use Air Force planes for flights earlier this week.