WASHINGTON (AP) — Military officials are reviewing plans that would cut the number of U.S. troops deployed to the Guantanamo Bay^[1] naval base in Cuba to handle detained migrants by as much as half, because there are no detainees there now and the program has stumbled during legal challenges^[2], The Associated Press has learned.

U.S. officials said the military's Southern Command was asked to give Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth a plan that would outline how many troops are actually needed^[3] and what additional space may be required if more detainees are sent there.

That plan, said officials, is expected to recommend that a number of the troops be sent home — and one official said the decision could chop the 900 troops there now in half.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the decisions are not yet finalized. Southern Command is preparing options that would address the fact that there have been no migrants transferred to the base^[4] since early March, but the administration has warned that future “high-threat” detainees may be sent to the base.

U.S. authorities have transferred at least 290 detainees to Guantanamo since February. But on March 11, the 40 people still housed there were flown off the base to Louisiana.

The base is best known for housing foreigners associated with the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks^[5], but it has a separate facility used for decades to hold migrants intercepted^[6] trying to reach the U.S. by sea. That use had been expanded recently to include some of the migrants swept up in President Donald Trump’s broader campaign to secure the southern border.

Trump has said he will send the worst criminal migrants to Guantanamo Bay^[7], but civil rights attorneys say many detainees transferred there don’t have a criminal record and that the administration has exceeded its authority in violation of U.S. immigration law.

A judge recently ruled against immigration and civil rights advocates^[8] who sued over the transfers, but it largely hinged on the fact that, at the current time, there were no migrant detainees being held there.

Meanwhile, the 900 troops at the base have little to do. There are roughly 500 Army soldiers, nearly 300 Marines and several dozen sailors and airmen deployed to the base for the detainee program.

Officials said the new Southern Command plan will likely send a significant number home, but they or others may be told to be prepared to deploy if needed. Currently, nearly 800 additional U.S.-based soldiers are already on prepare-to-deploy orders and could be sent to the base quickly if needed.

Civil rights attorneys sued the Trump administration this month to prevent it from transferring 10 migrants detained in the U.S. to Guantanamo Bay, filing statements from men held there who said they were mistreated in conditions that one of them called “a living hell.”

The judge indicated a willingness to revisit the issue if and when the government sends more detainees to Guantanamo. He said he wouldn’t set a timeline for how quickly the government has to tell him of future transfers.

U.S. authorities say they began transferring migrants to Guantanamo Bay with the first military transport flight out of Fort Bliss on Feb. 4. Initial flights transported Venezuelans — a prelude to the transfer of 177 detainees from Guantanamo Bay to Venezuela, with a brief stopover in Honduras.

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A Department of Defense webpage describing baseball and civil rights icon Jackie Robinson's military service was restored Wednesday after it was missing earlier in the day.

That development came after pages honoring a Black Medal of Honor winner and Japanese American service members were taken down — the Pentagon said that was a mistake^[1] — amid the department's campaign to strip out content singling out the contributions by women and minority groups, which the Trump administration considers “DEI.”

The page on Robinson includes biographical information about his Army service during World War II, which occurred prior to his famously breaking baseball's color barrier in 1947 with the Brooklyn Dodgers. When that page's address was entered Wednesday, a message showed up saying it “might have been moved, renamed, or may be temporarily unavailable.” The letters “dei” were also automatically added to the URL.

“We were surprised to learn that a page on the Department of Defense’s website featuring Jackie Robinson among sports heroes who served in the military was taken down,” said David Robinson, son of Jackie Robinson and a board member of the Jackie Robinson Foundation. "We take great pride in Jackie Robinson’s service to our country as a soldier and a sports hero, an icon whose courage, talent, strength of character and dedication contributed greatly to leveling the playing field not only in professional sports but throughout society.

"He worked tirelessly on behalf of equal opportunities, in education, business, civic engagement, and within the justice system. A recipient of both the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal, he of course is an American hero.”

Later Wednesday, the page reappeared on the department’s site, and the Pentagon released a statement.

“We are pleased by the rapid compliance across the Department with the directive removing DEI content from all platforms,” press secretary John Ullyot said. “In the rare cases that content is removed — either deliberately or by mistake — that is out of the clearly outlined scope of the directive, we instruct the components and they correct the content so it recognizes our heroes for their dedicated service alongside their fellow Americans, period.”

The page includes an anecdote about Robinson refusing to move to the back of an Army bus in 1944, prompting the driver to call military police. Robinson was court martialed but acquitted.

Thousands of pages^[2] honoring contributions by women and minority groups have been taken down in efforts to delete material promoting diversity, equity and inclusion, commonly referred to as DEI. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell defended the practice^[3] at a briefing Monday.

A Defense Department webpage honoring Black Medal of Honor recipient Army Maj. Gen. Charles Calvin Rogers was taken down last week but was back online by Monday night.

“Everyone at the Defense Department loves Jackie Robinson, as well as the Navajo Code Talkers, the Tuskegee airmen, the Marines at Iwo Jima and so many others — we salute them for their strong and in many cases heroic service to our country, full stop,” Ullyot said. “We do not view or highlight them through the prism of immutable characteristics, such as race, ethnicity, or sex. We do so only by recognizing their patriotism and dedication to the warfighting mission like (every) other American who has worn the uniform.”

Ullyot's statement referred to DEI as “Discriminatory Equity Ideology.”

“It is a form of woke cultural Marxism that Divides the force, Erodes unit cohesion and Interferes with the services' core warfighting mission," he said.