The Trump administration on Tuesday began flights transporting "criminal aliens" to Guantanamo Bay, with plans in the works to use the Cuban detention facility to eventually hold thousands of other migrants.

The Trump administration’s first flights carrying detained migrants to Guantanamo Bay are set to depart on Tuesday after the president ordered a large-scale effort to prepare for thousands of prisoners to be sent to the US naval base in Cuba.

The Trump administration started sending migrants to the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba, on Tuesday as part of a crackdown on undocumented immigration, the White House said.