ACLU sues Trump administration to halt immigrant transfers to Guantanamo
Immigrant rights groups sued the Trump administration on Saturday in hopes of stopping the transfer of migrants from the U.S. to Guantanamo Bay.
Immigrant rights groups sued the Trump administration on Saturday in hopes of stopping the transfer of immigrants from the U.S. to Guantanamo Bay, according to the suit filed by multiple legal advocacy groups including the American Civil Liberties Union.
The legal groups filed the lawsuit in Washington, D.C., federal court on behalf of 10 migrants who are in immigration custody in the U.S. and who they say are at “imminent risk” of being transferred to the American detention camp in Cuba without legal authority. The suit alleges the transfers are “arbitrary and capricious” and violate federal law and the U.S. Constitution, citing the Administrative Procedure Act and the Fifth Amendment.
The individuals who are at risk of transfer and detention at Guantanamo include seven Venezuelan nationals, one Afghan national, one Pakistani national and one Bangladeshi national.
“They all have final orders of removal and may [be] transferred at any time, placing them at immediate risk of harm, including the denial of access to the outside world and the likelihood of being subject to horrific, punitive conditions at Guantánamo,” the advocacy groups alleged in their request for an emergency stay in the transfer of the 10 individuals.
In the suit, the groups said they aren’t challenging the administration’s authority to “detain the individuals on U.S. soil or to directly remove them to their home country or another statutorily authorized country” but the “government’s unprecedented and unlawful decision to transfer and detain them at Guantanamo.”
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