Federal Court Blocks Potential Transfer of 3 Detained Venezuelans to Guantanamo

The first flight of high-threat illegal immigrants is prepared for transport from Fort Bliss, Texas, to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba on Feb. 4, 2025. Courtesy of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security

A federal court on Feb. 9 granted a request to temporarily block the possible transfer of three Venezuelan men from a detention center in New Mexico to the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba amid the federal government’s efforts to expand the detention of illegal immigrants at the naval base.

The three men, currently held at Otero County Processing Center in New Mexico, filed a Feb. 9 motion seeking a temporary restraining order to prevent a possible transfer.

According to the nonprofit Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), which represented the petitioners in the case, they have a pending court case challenging their prolonged detention in New Mexico.

In a memorandum of opinion obtained by The Epoch Times, the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico stated that the petitioners—Luis Eduardo Perez Parra, Leonel Jose Rivas Gonzales, and Abrahan Josue Barrios Morales—have been held in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody since late 2023. They filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in September 2024 to challenge the legality of their extended detention by ICE.

In granting the temporary restraining order, the court cited the “uncertainty surrounding jurisdiction” about their pending court case.

“At this time, the Court cannot say that without this injunction it would not be jurisdictionally deprived to preside over the original writ of habeas corpus should petitioners be transferred,” it stated. “Thus, an injunction is necessary to achieve the ends of justice entrusted to this Court.”

Baher Azmy, legal director at the CCR, stated on social media platform X that the order marked a “small but important win for clients otherwise bound to the latest iteration of the legal black hole.”

The men said they feared being transferred after President Donald Trump signed a memorandum on Jan. 29 directing the Defense and Homeland Security departments to prepare Guantanamo Bay “to provide additional detention space for high-priority criminal aliens unlawfully present in the United States.”

Their lawyers stated in the court filing that their clients “fit precisely the profile of the individuals who have already been transferred to Guantánamo and have information indicating that they will be likewise transferred.”

According to the court filing, the federal government has transferred more than 50 illegal immigrants to Guantanamo Bay since Feb. 4. The transfer prioritized Venezuelan men with alleged ties to the Tren de Aragua gang, a criminal organization from Venezuela.

“I fear being taken to Guantánamo because the news is painting it as a black hole,” Morales said in a statement released by the CCR. “I also see that human rights are constantly violated at Guantánamo, so I fear what could happen to me if I get taken there.”

The petitioners highlighted concerns about prison conditions at the naval base, and their attorneys also expressed concerns about the detainees’ ability to access legal representation after being transferred to Guantanamo Bay.

Zoe Bowman, supervising attorney at Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, who also represented the Venezuelan men, said Guantanamo Bay had been “a symbol of human rights abuses and disregard for the rule of law” for decades.

“Transferring people from the Otero County Processing Center, where we have ready access to visit our clients, to an offshore prison thousands of miles away from counsel, is appalling,” Bowman said in a statement.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced on Feb. 4 that flights transferring illegal immigrants to the Guantanamo Bay naval facility have begun.

Trump’s decision to use Guantanamo Bay as part of his broader immigration enforcement effort aligns with his push to strengthen border security and increase deportations, particularly of individuals who have committed crimes beyond unlawful entry into the United States.

“We have 30,000 beds in Guantanamo to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people,“ Trump told reporters on Jan. 29. “Some of them are so bad we don’t even trust the countries to hold them because we don’t want them coming back so we’re going to send them out to Guantanamo.”

The Guantanamo Bay military prison was created in 2002 under President George W. Bush to detain foreign suspects allegedly linked to terrorism after the 9/11 attacks.

ICE did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.

Tom Ozimek and Reuters contributed to this report.