A U.S. civil rights group has filed a lawsuit in Washington, D.C., to prevent the Trump administration from potentially relocating 10 migrants to a naval base in Cuba. The lawsuit, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, alleges that moving the detainees overseas violates U.S. immigration law and instills unfounded fear. The detainees, hailing from Venezuela, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, face deportation orders and some have been threatened with transfer to Guantanamo, despite not being gang members or high-risk criminals.
The Department of Homeland Security dismissed the ACLU's legal challenge as "baseless" and pledged to combat the lawsuit alongside the Justice Department. President Trump has vowed to escalate deportations of illegal immigrants, with recent efforts involving the transfer of migrants to Guantanamo Bay, a detention camp primarily known for holding foreign terrorism suspects.
While Cuban and Haitian migrants intercepted at sea have historically been held at a facility on the base, this move marks a precedent of transferring migrants from the U.S. to Guantanamo. Allegations in the ACLU lawsuit describe disturbing conditions at Guantanamo, including confinement in windowless rooms, invasive searches, verbal and physical abuse by guards, and several suicide attempts among detainees.
Despite a federal judge halting the potential transfer of Venezuelan migrants in February, some were subsequently deported before the ACLU could intervene. Separately, a group of lawyers has sued the Panamanian government over the treatment of migrants detained at a camp in Panama. In another legal action, immigrant rights organizations are contesting former President Biden's parole programs that allowed entry for individuals fleeing danger, arguing that regulatory procedures were not followed when these programs were terminated for various nationalities and Afghan refugees.