Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday confirmed that the Defense Department will use the U.S. Naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to temporarily hold illegal immigrants who committed more serious crimes, while the U.S. works to repatriate them to their homelands.

President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he will sign an executive order that instructs the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security to prepare a facility at Guantanamo Bay that can house up to 30,000 migrants. 

Hegseth told Fox News that the facility would be a temporary but humane place to hold the criminal illegal migrants while the deportation process plays out, and which gets them out of the United States. He called it a "perfect place" to hold them "safely in the interim" as the process plays out.

"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.

"This is a plan in movement, but not in movement because we're behind, but because we're ramping up for the possibility to expand mass deportations because President Trump is dead serious about getting illegal criminals out of our country," he continued. "And the DOD is not only willing to, it's proud to partner with DHS to defend the sovereignty of our southern border and advance that mission."

The secretary added that the illegal immigrants will not be housed in the same place as suspected terrorists and "other criminals," but Trump said the new facility will hold the "worst criminal illegal aliens" that pose a threat to U.S. safety.

“Some of them are so bad we don’t even trust the countries to hold them because we don’t want them coming back, so we’re going to send them out to Guantanamo,” Trump said during an event where he signed the "Laken Riley Act" into law. “This will double our capacity immediately, and it’s a tough place to get out of.”

Guantanamo Bay is a facility in Cuba that has been used to house military prisoners.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.