Several civil rights organizations on Saturday filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration to halt the transfer of noncitizens from the US to the US Naval Station at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The lawsuit, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Center for Constitutional Rights, International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) and the ACLU of the District of Columbia, seeks to block the administration from sending immigration detainees to the base, detailing harsh conditions and suicide attempts among migrants held there.
The complaint, filed on behalf of 10 individuals currently held in immigration custody within the United States, alleges that transferring detainees to Guantánamo violates federal law and the Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution. According to the plaintiffs, the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) contains no provision permitting detention outside US soil. The lawsuit further claims that the Trump administration’s new policy is intended purely to punish and intimidate detainees and deter future asylum seekers, rather than serve any legitimate law enforcement purpose.
“Sending immigrants to a remote abusive prison is not only illegal and unprecedented, but illogical given the additional cost and logistical complications. Ultimately this is about theatrics,” said Lee Gelernt, lead counsel and deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project.
According to the complaint, several immigrants have already been transferred from facilities in Texas and other states to Guantánamo in recent weeks. Advocates say these transfers cut detainees off from attorneys and family members. Although some detainees were recently deported to their home countries after a short stint at Guantánamo, others remain at imminent risk of being relocated to the base at any time.
The lawsuit also highlights reports of harsh treatment for those already taken to Guantánamo. Individuals describe being held in solitary confinement for most of the day, shackled and strip-searched, deprived of regular meals and medical care, and forbidden from contacting their families or lawyers.
In public statements and news interviews, top administration officials have called the detained immigrants “the worst of the worst,” insisting the measures at Guantánamo are necessary for national security. However, the plaintiffs’ lawyers say many detainees have little or no criminal record; some were taken into ICE custody for civil immigration violations the moment they tried to enter the country to request asylum.
Saturday’s lawsuit follows a related legal action last month on behalf of relatives and attorneys of those first detainees transferred to Guantánamo. That case sought basic access to the individuals held at the remote base, including the ability to speak with counsel and contact family members. Although the government implemented limited attorney-access measures in response, advocates say conditions remain profoundly inadequate and unconstitutionally punitive.
In the new suit, the plaintiffs are asking a federal judge to declare the transfers to Guantánamo illegal and unconstitutional and to order an immediate halt to any further relocations. Their complaint cites both statutory and constitutional arguments, asserting that subjecting civil immigration detainees to military-style confinement impermissibly uses the threat of detention “to frighten immigrants, deter future migration, induce self-deportation, and coerce people in detention to give up claims and accept deportation elsewhere.”
No court date has yet been set for hearings on the lawsuit. Attorneys for the immigrant rights groups also filed an emergency motion for stay on Saturday in hopes of preventing any additional detainees from being flown to Guantánamo while the case is litigated.
