The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration for its transfers of illegal immigrant criminals to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Lee Gelernt, Deputy Director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said in a statement, “By hurrying immigrants off to a remote island cut off from lawyers, family, and the rest of the world, the Trump administration is sending its clearest signal yet that the rule of law means nothing to it. It will now be up to the courts to ensure that immigrants cannot be warehoused on offshore islands.”
“This lawsuit is about the government’s attempt to thwart access to counsel for immigrant detainees,” the filing says. “For the first time in U.S. history, the federal government has moved noncitizens apprehended and detained in the United States on civil immigration charges to the Naval Station at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba (‘Guantánamo’). And it is holding them incommunicado, without access to attorneys, family, or the outside world.”
The ACLU claims the federal government has not explained its legal authority to transfer the migrants.
“The government has also withheld information regarding the legal basis for these individuals’ transfers and confinement at Guantánamo, the likelihood of their continued detention, the immigration status of the transferred individuals, the nature of any legal proceedings against them, the conditions of their confinement, and the government’s treatment of and plans for these individuals.”
According to the ACLU, the migrants being held in Guantanamo are having several of their rights violated, including the right to legal counsel and the Fifth Amendment’s right to due process.
