In a recent legal development, civil rights lawyers have initiated a lawsuit against the Trump administration, aiming to secure access to migrants who they claim have been transported to Guantanamo Bay and are being held there without the ability to consult with legal representatives or communicate with family members. The lawsuit, filed in Washington, D.C., is supported by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and asserts that this marks the first time in U.S. history that non-citizens have been detained on civil immigration grounds at the naval base located in Cuba.
The lawsuit alleges, “And it is holding them incommunicado, without access to attorneys, family, or the outside world.” Although the Department of Homeland Security, one of the agencies named in the lawsuit, contends that there is a mechanism for detainees to contact their attorneys by phone, the situation remains contentious.
Historically, the Guantanamo naval base has largely served as a facility for detaining individuals linked to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Recent reports indicate that over 50 migrants were transferred there this month, which the lawsuit describes as them having “effectively disappeared into a black box.” The plaintiffs assert, “This isolation is no coincidence. Guantanamo is home to one of the most notorious prisons in the world, used when the U.S. government has attempted to operate in secret, without legal constraint or accountability.”
The lawsuit includes as plaintiffs the family members of three Venezuelan immigrants sent to Guantanamo from immigration detention facilities in Texas. It accuses government officials of infringing on their constitutional rights, particularly their rights to due process and free speech. The attorneys advocating for the plaintiffs are requesting a court mandate that would allow them to visit the detainees and also require officials to disclose the location of a detainee within a day of their transfer to Guantanamo.
A U.S. official has reported that the inaugural military flight transporting migrants from the United States to Guantanamo arrived on February 4, marking the onset of what is anticipated to be an increase in the number of migrants sent to the base. President Trump suggested that Guantanamo has the potential to accommodate up to 30,000 individuals, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who previously served at Guantanamo, praising the facility as a “perfect place” to detain migrants.
Currently, around 300 military personnel are involved in the detention operations at Guantanamo, and that number is projected to vary over time. President Trump has expressed his commitment to deport a significant portion of the estimated 11.7 million undocumented individuals residing in the U.S. Furthermore, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated on February 5 that over 8,000 individuals had been apprehended during immigration enforcement activities since Trump took office on January 20.
Additionally, the lawsuit includes four advocacy organizations: Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, American Gateways, and Americans for Immigrant Justice. They have brought legal action against the Defense Department, the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and respective officials in these departments. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, along with its acting director, are also defendants in the case.
ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt expressed grave concerns about the situation, stating, “It’s troubling enough that we are even sending immigrants from the U.S. to Guantanamo, but it’s beyond the pale that we are holding them incommunicado, without access to attorneys, family or the outside world.” Legal representatives from the Center for Constitutional Rights and the International Refugee Assistance Project are also involved in supporting the plaintiffs.
