US Marines have descended on the southern border in a bid to secure the crossing with Mexico as President Donald Trump begins to ramp up his promised crackdown on illegal immigration.
Around active duty 1,500 active troops were deployed to the nearly 2,000-mile border this week, including 500 Marines from Camp Pendleton in California.
The Pentagon expects additional troops to be ordered to deploy in the next few days as defense and homeland security leaders iron out requests for more support.
It comes as a plane carrying 88 migrants deported from the US has landed in Brazil, with footage showing passengers descending from the civilian aircraft with their hands handcuffed and their ankles shackled.
Brazil's government expressed outrage on Saturday over the 'degrading' treatment of the deportees, alleging the US has displayed a 'flagrant disregard' for their rights.
The Trump Administration is touting its deportation efforts and published new rules Friday making it easier to remove people - part of a flurry of actions by Trump to make good on campaign promises to tackle the border crisis.
Trump began his second term with a flurry of executive actions aimed at overhauling entry to the US and on his first day in office signed orders declaring a 'national emergency' at the southern border.
He also announced the deployment of more troops to the border and vowed to carry out mass deportations of 'criminal aliens'.
US Marines have descended on the southern border in a bid to secure the crossing with Mexico
Around active duty 1,500 active troops were deployed to the nearly 2,000-mile border this week, including 500 Marines from Camp Pendleton in California
The Pentagon expects additional troops to be ordered to deploy in the next few days as defense and homeland security leaders iron out requests for more support. Pictured are Marines at the southern border last week
The White House announced the Marines' arrival at the southern border Friday in an optimistic post on X, formerly Twitter.
'The US Marine Corps Is On The Border Assisting CBP With The Mission To Secure America,' the White House accounted tweeted. 'Promise Made --> Promise KEPT!'
The newly deployed troops include 1,000 Army soldiers from a variety of units and 500 Marines from Camp Pendleton. More are expected to be deployed in the near future.
Before Trump's move to strengthen the US military presence at the Mexico crossing, there were already about 2,500 Guard and Reserve forces deployed to the border - and the new 1,500 would add to that total.
But officials note that given the length of the nearly 2,000-mile border, it will take additional forces to help put large rolls of concertina wire barriers in place and provide needed transportation, intelligence and other support to the Border Patrol.
Officials said it's not yet clear how many more service members will get deployed to the border in the near future but estimate the number could be in the thousands. They say it would include active duty, National Guard and Reserves, and come from land, air and sea forces.
In addition to deploying more troops and declaring a national emergency at the border, Trump has reinstated a 'Remain in Mexico' policy - under which people who apply to enter the US from Mexico must remain there until their application has been decided.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt revealed Friday that the program had been reinstated, and that Mexico had deployed some 30,000 National Guard troops to its border. The Mexican foreign ministry did not confirm either claim in its statement.
The White House has also halted an asylum program for people fleeing authoritarian regimes in Central and South America, leaving thousands of people stranded on the Mexican side of the border.
The White House announced the Marines' arrival at the southern border Friday in an optimistic post on X, saying troops were assisting Border Patrol with the 'Mission To Secure America'
Officials note that given the length of the nearly 2,000-mile border, it will take additional forces to help put large rolls of concertina wire barriers in place and provide needed transportation, intelligence and other support to the Border Patrol
A military plane flies near the southern border after Trump deployed 1,500 troops to the region
The US also expelled dozens of Brazilian nationals on Friday night, with a flight carrying the migrants having arrived at Eduardo Gomes International Airport in the northern city of Manaus on Saturday.
Video obtained by CNN Brazil shows how the migrants were handcuffed and tied at the feet, with some even having been hooded.
When the plane landed, Brazilian authorities ordered US officials to 'immediately remove the handcuffs' from the deportees.
The government said 88 Brazilians were aboard the aircraft. Brazil's Minister of Human Rights, Macae Evaristo, told journalists that 'children with autism ... who went through very serious experiences' were also on the flight - yet footage from the migrants' arrival shows not a single woman or child among them.
Brazil will request 'explanations from the US government about the degrading treatment of passengers' on the Friday night flight, the foreign ministry said on X.
Justice Minister Ricardo Lewandowski told President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of 'the flagrant disregard for the fundamental rights of Brazilian citizens,' the statement said.
The flight was originally destined for the southeastern city of Belo Horizonte, but encountered a technical issue forcing it to land in Manaus.
President Lula has since ordered a Brazilian Air Force (FAB) to be mobilized to transport the migrants to their final destination 'in order to ensure that they could complete their journey with dignity and safety,' the justice ministry said.
A government source told AFP the deportation flight was not directly linked to any immigration orders issued by Trump upon taking office Monday, but rather stemmed from a 2017 bilateral agreement.
A Brazilian government source has also claimed that the deportees who arrived in Manaus traveled 'with their documents', showing that they agreed to return home.
A plane carrying 88 migrants deported from the US landed in Brazil on Saturday. Brazil 's government expressed outrage on Saturday over the 'degrading' treatment of the deportees, alleging the US has displayed a 'flagrant disregard' for their rights
Footage captured at Eduardo Gomes International Airport in Manaus, Brazil on Saturday shows how the migrants were handcuffed and tied at the feet, with some even having been hooded
Luis Antonio Rodrigues Santos arrives at Confins airport in Brazil after being deported from US
A man deported from US is welcomed by relatives at Confins airport in Brazil
The plane that brought Brazilians who were deported from US is pictured at Eduardo Gomes International Airport in Manaus, Amazonas state, on January 25, 2025
Brazilians who were deported from US walk through the departure lounge at Eduardo Gomes International Airport in Manaus, Amazonas state, on January 25, 2025
Several deportation flights since Monday have garnered public and media attention, though such actions were also common under previous American presidents.
In a break with prior practice, however, the Trump administration has begun using military aircraft for repatriation flights. The plane that landed in Manaus, Brazil was not a military aircraft.
Military planes carrying dozens of expelled migrants arrived in Guatemala on Friday, authorities revealed. A total of 265 Guatemalans arrived on three flights - two operated by the military, and one a charter, the Central American country's migration institute said, updating earlier figures.
Washington also sent four deportation flights to Mexico on Thursday, the White House press secretary said on X, despite multiple US media reports that authorities there had turned at least one plane back.
The Mexican government has not confirmed either the arrival of flights or any agreement to receive a specific number of planes with deportees.
But Mexico's foreign ministry said Friday it was ready to work with Washington over the deportation of its citizens, saying the country would 'always accept the arrival of Mexicans to our territory with open arms.'
The flights came as the White House said it had arrested more than a thousand people in two days with hundreds deported by military aircraft, saying that 'the largest massive deportation operation in history is well underway.'
Some 538 illegal immigrant 'criminals' were arrested Thursday, it said, followed by another 593 on Friday.
By comparison, under Trump's predecessor Joe Biden deportation flights were carried out regularly, with a total of 270,000 deportations in 2024 - a 10-year record - and 113,400 arrests, making an average of 310 per day.
The Guatemalan government did not confirm whether any of the migrants arrested this week were among the deportees that arrived Friday.
'These are flights that took place after Trump took office,' an official in the Guatemalan vice president's office told AFP.
Migrants were sent by US military transport back to Guatemala as part of deportations ordered by Donald Trump
Guatemalan migrants sit on a bus after arriving at La Aurora Air Force Base on a deportation flight from the U.S., in Guatemala City, Guatemala, January 24, 2025
A migrant is greeted by a family member outside the Returned Migrant Reception Center, after he and other Guatemalan migrants arrived at La Aurora Air Force Base on a deportation flight from the U.S., in Guatemala City, Guatemala, January 20, 2025
A Pentagon source told AFP that 'two Department of Defense aircraft conducted repatriation flights from the US to Guatemala.'
Early Friday the White House posted an image on X of men in shackles being marched into a military aircraft, with the caption: 'Deportation flights have begun.'
And Trump told reporters that the flights were to get 'the bad, hard criminals out.'
'Murderers, people that have been as bad as you get. As bad as anybody you've seen,' he said.
Friday's deportees were taken to a reception center at an air force base in Guatemala's capital, away from the media.
There are an estimated 11 million undocumented migrants in the United States, according to the Department of Homeland Security statistics.
