SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — U.S. immigration and army authorities disclosed Monday that immigrants from 27 international locations have been being held at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station in Cuba, whereas revealing new particulars of circumstances of confinement and defending the federal government’s authority to switch and maintain immigrants on the army base.
Court docket filings on behalf of the Homeland Safety and Protection departments indicated that 40 immigrants with closing deportation orders have been being held at Guantanamo Bay as of Friday — with 23 labelled “high risk” and held individually in cells. The rest have been held in one other space of particular housing for migrants, in teams of as much as six.
Civil rights attorneys sued the Trump administration this month to stop it from transferring 10 migrants detained within the U.S. to Guantanamo Bay and filed statements from males held there who stated they have been mistreated in circumstances that of certainly one of them referred to as “a living hell.”
Responding to the lawsuit, Justice Division attorneys argued Monday that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has broad authority to carry immigrants with closing elimination orders at Guantanamo Bay “for only so long as their removal remains significantly likely to occur in the reasonably foreseeable future.”
U.S. immigration and army authorities “do not need to show that (Naval Station Guantanamo Bay) is essential to that plan, logistically uncomplicated, or that it is the least expensive option,” the Trump administration argued within the courtroom filings.
Administration attorneys additionally stated, “the government does not dispute that the mass removal efforts are intended in part to deter illegal migration.”
New written testimonials from ICE and army leaders say that Guantanamo Bay detainees are being “treated with dignity and and respect,” describing entry to authorized counsel, common meals, laundry service and medical care as “not inconsistent with other ICE detention facilities.”
On the similar time, the federal government testimonials additionally acknowledge the naval base shouldn’t be accommodating requests for in-person visits by authorized counsel, whereas some detainees refused to eat and a few have been positioned in hand and leg restraints after threatening to hurt themselves. Strip searches are performed upon arrival for “high-risk” detainees, with “pat downs” searches when immigrants depart sure holding areas.
Private cellphone calls of as much as 5 minutes every day are being allowed, with conversations monitored by ICE, authorities stated.
Trump has stated he’ll ship the worst felony migrants to Guantanamo Bay, however civil rights attorneys say many detainees transferred to there don’t have a severe felony report or any felony report.
Lee Gelernt, an ACLU legal professional within the case for immigrants aiming to dam transfers to Guantanamo, stated the ACLU doesn’t have a full listing of immigrants detained on the base or their international locations of origin. He declined to remark additional forward of a courtroom listening to within the case.
The ten males concerned within the lawsuit got here to the U.S. in 2023 or 2024, seven from from Venezuela, and the others from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Trump in January stated he needed to increase immigrant detention services at Guantanamo to carry as many as 30,000 folks, and his administration on Feb. 4 started flying immigrants there.
Initially almost 200 Venezuelans immigrants have been transferred to Guantanamo — and later flown to their residence nation. No Venezuelans have been detained at Guantanamo, as of Friday.
Whereas the U.S. naval base in Cuba is finest recognized for the suspects introduced in after the Sept. 11, 2001, assaults, it has a small, separate facility used for many years to carry migrants.
Tent services with the capability to carry 520 immigrants have been put in however aren’t but in use. Migrants are also being held in a medium-security facility modeled after U.S. prisons.
The migrant detention heart operates individually from the army’s detention heart and courtrooms for foreigners detained underneath President George W. Bush throughout what that administration referred to as its “war on terror.”
