WASHINGTON: The Trump administration faced the first direct legal challenge to its policy of sending migrants to the US military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for continued immigration detention with a lawsuit filed Saturday by a coalition of human rights and immigrant advocacy organisations.
“Plaintiffs seek this court’s intervention to put a stop to these cruel, unnecessary and illegal transfers to and detention at Guantanamo,” the newly filed complaint said. The plaintiffs, led by the American Civil Liberties Union, are for now seeking a judicial stay to block the transfer of 10 migrants whom the coalition signed up to represent. But it appears to lay the groundwork to seek a potential broader order against the transfer policy, which has raised many novel legal issues.
The 10 migrants named in the lawsuit have final removal orders, it said, and come from countries including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Venezuela. The lawsuit asserts that none are gang members, and some have been specifically threatened with transfer to Guantanamo. “In attempting to justify the transfers, the govt has claimed that the individuals it sent to Guantanamo are members of gangs and dangerous criminals – the ‘worst of the worst,'” the complaint said, citing a remark in Jan by defense secretary Pete Hegseth. It continued: “That characterisation is patently false. It is also legally irrelevant because the govt lacks statutory authority to send any immigration detainees from the US to Guantanamo.” The justice department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.