ACLU Files Lawsuit to Block Illegal Immigrant Transfers to Guantanamo Base

A Homeland Security spokesperson said the lawsuit is baseless and will be challenged in court.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in a file photograph. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via Getty Images

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has sued to prevent the Trump administration from transferring 10 illegal immigrants from the United States to the military base in Guantanamo Bay.

Transfers to the Cuban base, the civil rights group said, would violate U.S. immigration laws regarding the moving of detainees outside the United States. They also alleged the Trump administration was trying to stoke fear without a good reason.

The 10 men referenced in the lawsuit who are due to be sent to Guantanamo are nationals from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Venezuela. They are currently being held in Texas, Virginia, and Arizona, according to the ACLU’s lawsuit, which adds that they are not gang members or high-risk criminals.

“Nothing in U.S. law authorizes ICE to detain people in foreign countries, but that appears to be of no concern to the Trump administration,” Arthur Spitzer, senior counsel at the ACLU of the District of Columbia, said in a statement issued on March 1 when the lawsuit was filed.

“For an administration that has been touting supposed efficiency with taxpayer dollars, President Trump seems eager to waste money on unnecessary and unlawful mistreatment of immigrants,” he added.

The ACLU lawsuit claims that illegal immigrants detained at Guantanamo have been held in windowless rooms for at least 23 hours per day, subjected to strip searches, and are unable to contact family members.

Guards at the base are accused of engaging in “verbal and physical abuse,” including strapping detainees to a chair, withholding water, threatening to shoot detainees, and fracturing one person’s hand. “These degrading conditions and extreme isolation have led to several suicide attempts,” the complaint said.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin on Saturday called the ACLU legal challenge baseless and said the agency would work with the Department of Justice to fight the lawsuit.

The Epoch Times contacted the agency for additional comment but did not receive a response by publication time.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a video released last month that the Trump administration is sending the “worst of the worst” criminals to the naval base as she visited Guantanamo. “They won’t be there for long,” she added.

Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang was recently designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the State Department, and federal officials have said that removing members of the gang is a priority.

Mexican drug cartels and the Salvadoran gang MS-13 were also designated as terror groups by the State Department.

President Donald Trump has vowed to deport significant numbers of illegal immigrants who remain in the country and to shore up border security. As part of efforts to expand deportations, the administration in early February began sending illegal aliens to a detention camp on the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo, best known for holding foreign terrorism suspects during President George W. Bush’s second administration.

Trump signed a flurry of immigration and border orders in his first days in office in January, including to end “catch and release,” shut down the CBP One app, declare a national emergency at the U.S.–Mexico border, and rescind birthright citizenship, a decision that multiple judges have since blocked.

Over the past weekend, Trump said in a post on social media that in February, “the LOWEST number of Illegal Immigrants trying to enter our Country in History” was recorded under his administration.

“Thanks to the Trump Administration Policies, the Border is CLOSED to all Illegal Immigrants,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Anyone who tries to illegally enter the U.S.A. will face significant criminal penalties and immediate deportation.”

Reuters contributed to this report.