Leavitt Announces First Migrant Flights To Guantanamo Bay Are ‘Underway’

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that the initial flights transporting undocumented migrants to Guantanamo Bay had officially "begun."

During a Tuesday interview on Fox Business, Leavitt told host Stuart Varney that President Donald Trump was not "backing down" from his commitment to deport violent undocumented individuals and return them to their respective countries.

"He will no longer permit America to be a repository for criminal migrants from around the globe," Leavitt stated.

"Venezuela has agreed to repatriation flights, and Colombia has also committed to collaborating on the return of Colombian nationals who were discovered residing unlawfully in our country," she continued. "Additionally, I can confirm that today marks the commencement of the first flights from the United States to Guantanamo Bay carrying undocumented migrants."

Leavitt also responded to comments from New Jersey Democratic Governor Phil Murphy, who earlier this week suggested housing an undocumented immigrant in his own residence. The governor later retracted his remarks about personally accommodating a migrant.

"I will say this administration will ensure Democrat governors and leaders nationwide are held accountable if they violate the law, harbor undocumented migrants, or fail to comply with federal immigration regulations," Leavitt cautioned.

On Monday night, Leavitt criticized mainstream media for ridiculing President Trump and many conservatives during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly when Trump and others suggested that the virus originated from a laboratory in Wuhan, China.

Her remarks followed a revelation by Trump’s newly appointed CIA director, John Ratcliffe, who confirmed that intelligence assessments indicate the virus likely emerged from the lab.

"Years too late, the Biden administration had the opportunity to reveal the truth to the American people, yet for some reason, they opted not to," Leavitt said during a White House press briefing.

She highlighted how the media had dismissed Trump’s statements in 2020 when he challenged the prevailing belief that the virus came from a bat.

"Many members in this very room ridiculed him for that, accusing him of promoting conspiracy theories. He was not," she emphasized, addressing the press. "We now recognize that as a verifiable fact. It took years for the truth to emerge, but the president was right once again."

Ratcliffe elaborated on the issue in an interview with Breitbart News.

"I have discussed with the president where his priorities lie concerning foreign threats to America’s national security, and it begins with China," Ratcliffe said. "One of my primary focuses is addressing the multifaceted threat from China, which ties directly to the reason why a million Americans lost their lives and why the Central Intelligence Agency has been passive for five years in making a determination about COVID’s origins."

"That’s a top priority for me," he continued. "As you know, I have consistently stated that our intelligence, science, and common sense all indicate that COVID originated from a lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. However, the CIA has not formally acknowledged this conclusion or made it public. My goal is to ensure the agency moves forward and the public is made aware of these findings."

Ratcliffe also disclosed last week that Trump’s administration is considering the establishment of a national laboratory, akin to the Manhattan Project, to advance the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

"When discussing AI, one of my key objectives is to explore the possibility of expanding and founding a national laboratory dedicated to AI development, enabling the U.S. government to harness cutting-edge technology and maintain American leadership in this field," Ratcliffe stated.

The former Texas lawmaker and federal prosecutor, who previously served as director of national intelligence during Trump’s first term and was recently confirmed by the U.S. Senate, outlined his commitment to executing the president’s directive to remove political bias from the intelligence community and refocus efforts on core intelligence-gathering missions.

He pointed out that Trump’s announcement of "Project Stargate," a $500 billion initiative to enhance AI development, could be expanded through public-private partnerships modeled after the Manhattan Project. Such initiatives, he explained, would strengthen the U.S. position in the global AI race, as reported by Breitbart.

"You heard the president discuss this initiative—Project Stargate—which is a four-year, $500 billion AI infrastructure plan proposed in collaboration with our top technology firms," Ratcliffe said. "We could build on that framework with a public-private partnership that includes a government component, as we’ve done before—our network of national laboratories can be traced back to the Manhattan Project, which successfully developed the first nuclear weapon and helped secure victory in World War II."

"We must consider innovative strategies to counter how our adversaries exploit cyber threats to their advantage, safeguarding our national security interests by leveraging AI’s data processing and computational capabilities to identify trends, threats, and opportunities faster than our rivals," he concluded.