ACLU sues for access to migrants held at Guantánamo Bay News
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ACLU sues for access to migrants held at Guantánamo Bay

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other immigrant advocacy groups filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration Wednesday to gain access to detained migrants flown to Guantánamo Bay. The ACLU claims that holding migrants without access to lawyers or a means to communicate with relatives violates their habeas corpus rights, First Amendment rights, due process rights, and immigration law provisions.

While the lawsuit seeks to gain access to total but unknown number of immigrants detained at Guantánamo, it relays specific facts of three detained Venezuelan nationals. Family members of all three men shared their difficulties in locating and communicating with migrants. One of the family members retained counsel, who also was unsuccessful in contacting the detained migrant. The lawsuit alleges that this “isolation is no coincidence,” emphasizing Guantánamo Bay’s notorious status as a secret prison.

President Trump’s plan to house detained migrants at Guantánamo marks the first time in history that immigrants apprehended on US soil have been held there. The ACLU points out that the isolation of Guantánamo migrant detainees is “stark compared to the attorney access protocols provided to ICE detainees” in the US. US facilities are required to schedule attorney visits and allow public communications. The lawsuit seeks an order requiring the federal government to permit lawyers to meet and confer with detained migrants, as well as specifically identify the location of detainees held at Guantánamo and provide notice prior to transferring a migrant to that facility.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin responded to the ACLU’s lawsuit, stating: “If the American Civil Liberties Union cares more about highly dangerous criminal aliens including murders and vicious gang members than they do about American citizens — they should change their name.” A recent CBS exclusive, however, revealed that nonviolent, “low-risk” migrants are also being detained and transported to Guantánamo.

Venezuelan migrants began being sent to Guantánamo Bay under a Trump administration policy implemented in early February. On Monday, a New Mexico judge blocked the transfer of three migrants to the facility due to the risk of being deprived of a fair trial.

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