On Feb. 7, he and other Venezuelan men in ICE detention in El Paso were awakened and told they were going back to Venezuela, Purroy Roldan said. They were transported to Miami and put aboard a military plane – and realized they were actually going to Guantanamo.

Nearly 200 Venezuelan immigrants to the U.S. have returned to their home country after being detained at Guantanamo Bay in a flurry of flights that forged an unprecedented pathway for U.S. deportation

Authorities initiated on Feb. 4 near-daily flights from a U.S. Army base in West Texas to Guantanamo. Fifty-one of the newly arrived immigrants are being held in low-security tent facilities, while 127 more are confined to a high-security area.

A U.S. defense official confirmed to VOA that a C-130 military cargo plane carrying migrants left Fort Bliss in Texas and arrived at Guantanamo Bay on Sunday. A second defense official said all 17 migrants were assessed to be “high threat” and are being held at the base’s detention facility.