Immigration advocacy groups are asking Trump administration officials to release the identities of the more than three dozen migrants that they’ve sent to the U.S. Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay out of concern they are being sent to a “legal black hole.”
This past week, the White House began flying undocumented immigrants, whom they deem a “high threat” and “criminals,” to the infamous detention center in Cuba as part of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation plan.
But they have not released their names or other details about their deportation.
At least 14 groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, National Immigration Law Center and Center for Constitutional Rights, signed a letter addressed to several administration officials requesting migrants’s names, immigration status, criteria for detainment, federal statute used for transfer, length of time they will be held and plans for them after.
“The Constitution, and federal and international law prohibit the government from using Guantánamo as a legal black hole,” the advocacy groups wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
“We therefore request that the government provide our organizations access to the noncitizens detained at Guantánamo so that those individuals will have access to legal counsel, and so advocates and the public can understand the conditions under which the government is detaining them,” the letter continues.
To ease the pressure on domestic prisons and immigration detention centers, Trump signed an executive order demanding officials expand Guantánamo Bay’s capacity to hold up to 30,000 migrants.
It is the largest change the military base has undergone since the notorious and controversial detention center was opened after the September 11 attacks to hold suspects connected to the attacks or al-Qaeda.
Though Hegseth called Guantánamo the “perfect place” to provide for migrants as well as “hardened criminals,” details about how the base would provide for them and who exactly would be sent there remain scarce.
The first flight of migrants, who Noem called “murderers” and “vicious gang members”, arrived at the base last week. At least ten of those individuals are being housed at the infamous detention center – officials say they are affiliated with the Tren de Aragua gang that the U.S. has designated a “foreign terrorist organization.”
But officials have released no other information on those being held.
The prison on Guantánamo is known for its harsh conditions and has been the site of alleged inhumane treatment.
Most migrants are expected to live in tents at the base, and officials began constructing them on a part of the base that is away from the detention center.
A spokesperson for the defense department told the Washington Post that any new arrivals will be temporarily housed in “designated migration holding areas” and “will be treated safely and humanely in accordance with international humanitarian standards.”
Lawyers familiar with the military prison told the Post that the Trump administration is possibly bypassing the law by denying migrants access to legal counsel
However, Noem assured people on Sunday that migrants will “have due process” and that their residence on Guantánamo is temporary until they are returned to their homes.
