Dozens of migrants sat on long benches on a U.S. military plane as it waited to leave the West Texas airport. They were shackled and handcuffed yet dressed casually, mostly in jeans and sweatshirts. All wore light blue surgical masks.

One man, an eyebrow raised, looked straight at Associated Press photographer Christian Chavez as the deportation flight sat on the tarmac at Fort Bliss, the U.S. Army base in El Paso, Texas, preparing to take the migrants to Guatemala.

It was Jan. 30, 2025. President Donald Trump had been sworn into office again just 10 days earlier, signing a series of executive orders to crack down on immigration and vowing to “begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came.”

His focus would be on viole

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