Civil rights lawyers filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Saturday to halt the potential transfer of ten migrants from the United States to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Statements were collected from individuals previously held at the facility, detailing dire conditions, and describing it as “a living hell.” The legal action follows a recent suit from the same team aiming to gain access to migrants already detained at the naval base in Cuba for residing illegally in the U.S. Both lawsuits have the backing of the American Civil Liberties Union and were launched in Washington.
Accompanying the lawsuit were declarations, translated from Spanish, given by two men still detained at Guantanamo Bay, alongside statements from four men returned to Venezuela after their detention and another Venezuelan brought back to Texas. The men reported harsh conditions, including confinement in tiny, windowless cells with constant lighting, inadequate food and medical care, and instances of verbal and physical abuse by staff. One man recounted a suicide attempt, while others noted attempts by fellow detainees. Raul David Garcia, a former detainee sent back to Venezuela, remarked, “It was easy to lose the will to live,” adding his experience was worse than being kidnapped in Mexico.
Another ex-detainee, Jonathan Alejandro Alviares Armas, claimed that detainees were deprived of basic needs like water or physically restrained for hours as a disciplinary measure. He labeled Guantanamo “a living hell.” Meanwhile, a separate lawsuit in New Mexico led a judge to block the transfer of three Venezuelan immigrants from the state to Guantanamo Bay in early February.
President Trump has asserted that Guantanamo Bay could accommodate thousands of the so-called “worst” criminal aliens. However, no specifics about the migrants being transferred have been disclosed, leaving the public uncertain about any alleged crimes. Already, the civil rights attorneys estimate up to 200 migrants may have been sent to Guantanamo. This marked the first instance of detaining noncitizens under civil immigration charges at the base, a site previously used to confine suspects associated with the 9/11 attacks.
Another military detention facility previously housed about 800 people but now holds only 15, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, labeled as a key 9/11 architect. Critics continuously highlight the center’s poor conditions for detainees, with a 2023 United Nations report alleging continuous cruel treatment, though the U.S. dismissed much of this criticism. The migrants contended that they endured threats and torture before reaching the U.S., influencing their flight from their home countries.
The new lawsuit involves ten men who arrived in the U.S. in 2023 or 2024, primarily Venezuelan with others from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. The Afghan and Pakistani men fled from Taliban threats, while two Venezuelans endured government-backed torture over political disagreements. One Venezuelan, Walter Estiver Salazar, recounted that government agents kidnapped him for disobeying an order to cut off electricity to his town, resulting in severe abuse.
Salazar also confessed to a DUI conviction in the U.S., emphasizing his remorse, while another said charges tied to a domestic issue were dismissed. The men’s lawyers argue that most detainees at Guantanamo lack significant or any criminal background. Several Venezuelans were misidentified as gang members owing to tattoos, including one depicting a Catholic rosary.
The suit claims the transfers infringe on the detainees’ Fifth Amendment rights, which ensure due legal process. It also argues that transferring non-Cuban migrants to Guantanamo Bay contravenes federal immigration law, asserting that the U.S. lacks the jurisdiction to confine individuals outside its territory, as the base is technically part of Cuba. Descriptions suggest these transfers appear arbitrary.
The attorneys’ initial lawsuit highlighted that those detained at Guantanamo Bay had “effectively disappeared into a black box” without communication avenues to reach lawyers or family. The Department of Homeland Security contends calls to lawyers were possible. One former Venezuelan detainee, Yoiker David Sequera, was granted a single call to the ACLU but was refused family contact, while current detainee Tilso Ramon Gomez Lugo was isolated from external communication for two weeks, granted a sole attorney connection later.
The lawsuit further argues that Guantanamo’s facilities are insufficient for holding these ten men. Garcia noted that the section of the base meant for migrants like him, designated as Camp 6, seemed hastily prepared and was “not even finished,” describing conditions as frigid and likening it to being “chicken trapped in an incubator.”
