The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the Trump Administration on Wednesday, seeking access to illegal criminal migrants held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
By rushing immigrants to a remote, isolated island, cut off from family members, lawyers, and the rest of the world, Trump’s administration sends its most clear signal that it does not care about the rule of law. In a recent statement, Lee Gelernt said that it will be up to courts to make sure immigrants are not warehoused on offshore islands.
The co-defendants included the Director of Homeland Security Kristi Noem as well as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The lawsuit was filed by several plaintiffs including the sister of one of the detainees at Guantanamo as well as four lawyers who wanted to meet the detainees to offer them legal assistance.
ACLU attorneys claim that the administration does not provide information about how long deportees are held, what conditions and authority they will be under, or if there is a way to communicate with their families and attorneys.
Eunice Cho is a senior staff attorney at the ACLU National Prison Project. She said, “The Trump Administration cannot build on Guantanamo’s sordid history with these latest cruel and secretive illegal maneuvers.” Our Constitution doesn’t allow the government to keep people incommunicado without the ability to communicate with counsel or outside the world.
This is not the first lawsuit the ACLU has brought since Donald Trump won. The ACLU filed a lawsuit in November to get information about ICE Air which was used last year to remove around 140,000 illegal immigrants.
The ACLU is worried that the air operations could be expanded to help the incoming Trump Administration deport the more than 11,000,000 people who entered the U.S. under former President Joe Biden during his term.
The first U.S. Military flight arrived at Guantanamo last week. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth described it as the “perfect location” for the detention of the most criminal illegal immigrants by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Guantanamo also has close to 500 Marines. The facility can hold up to 30,000 people who are being deported out of the United States.