The administration of Donald Trump is considering the possibility of using ships—including ferries and a 500-foot training vessel—to deport migrants to countries in Central and South America, which would represent a new escalation of its mass expulsion policy, as revealed by The New York Times citing two American officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The discussions have been ongoing for several weeks, although they remain preliminary and no official decision has been made, warned an official from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which is the agency responsible for overseeing deportations.
The most specific vessel identified in the discussions is the Training Ship Golden Bear, a ship approximately 152 meters long currently docked in California, which served for three decades as a floating classroom for cadets from the Cal Poly Maritime Academy and undertook its final training voyage this year before being transferred to the U.S. Maritime Administration for retirement.
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Officials from the Department of Defense are said to have also contacted European shipping companies to explore the use of other vessels, according to the same source.
Among the possible destinations are El Salvador, Honduras, and Venezuela, and the routes could extend over several days at a cost of millions of dollars per operation.
One of the proposed motivations would be to transfer some of the deportation operational costs from DHS to the Department of Defense, which would help ease the budget of the former.
The DHS issued a statement indicating that it is "evaluating all its resources to maximize efficiency and continue fulfilling President Trump's mission to secure the homeland." Secretary Markwayne Mullin added that he is "100% focused on ensuring that the department's needs are met, being the best steward possible of taxpayers' money."
The Department of Defense made no comments on the proposal.
The plan poses significant logistical, legal, and humanitarian challenges: how to maintain custody of hundreds of people for days at sea, what legislation applies in international waters, how to ensure adequate medical care and accommodation, and whether destination countries would agree to accept deportees under this scheme.
The initiative is part of a strategy of mass deportations that has already resorted to military flights, the use of the Guantanamo Naval Base as a migration detention center —where 832 migrants were processed on more than 100 flights until May 2026— and the sending of migrants to third countries, including African nations such as Liberia, Equatorial Guinea, and the Central African Republic.
Experts from the UN estimated that the U.S. had sent at least 23,000 nationals from third countries to 29 countries and territories by September 2026, while the administration has committed at least 410 million dollars in deportation agreements with 31 nations.
The most direct historical precedent for maritime deportations in the U.S. is the so-called "Operation Wetback" of 1954, during the Eisenhower administration, when the Immigration and Naturalization Service hired private boats to transport Mexicans from Texas to Veracruz.
Cubans are also among those affected by the immigration policy of the Trump administration: between January 2025 and March 2026, 4,353 Cubans were deported as nationals of third countries, according to data from Human Rights Watch.
Some of those who have been sent to African countrieshave reported harsh conditions: months of imprisonment, transfers without knowing their destination, and difficulties accessing legal defense.
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