The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has sued to prevent the Trump administration from transferring 10 illegal immigrants from the United States to the military base in Guantanamo Bay.
Transfers to the Cuban base, the civil rights group said, would violate U.S. immigration laws regarding the moving of detainees outside the United States. They also alleged the Trump administration was trying to stoke fear without a good reason.
The 10 men referenced in the lawsuit who are due to be sent to Guantanamo are nationals from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Venezuela. They are currently being held in Texas, Virginia, and Arizona, according to the ACLU’s lawsuit, which adds that they are not gang members or high-risk criminals.
“Nothing in U.S. law authorizes ICE to detain people in foreign countries, but that appears to be of no concern to the Trump administration,” Arthur Spitzer, senior counsel at the ACLU of the District of Columbia, said in a statement issued on March 1 when the lawsuit was filed.
“For an administration that has been touting supposed efficiency with taxpayer dollars, President Trump seems eager to waste money on unnecessary and unlawful mistreatment of immigrants,” he added.
The ACLU lawsuit claims that illegal immigrants detained at Guantanamo have been held in windowless rooms for at least 23 hours per day, subjected to strip searches, and are unable to contact family members.
Guards at the base are accused of engaging in “verbal and physical abuse,” including strapping detainees to a chair, withholding water, threatening to shoot detainees, and fracturing one person’s hand. “These degrading conditions and extreme isolation have led to several suicide attempts,” the complaint said.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin on Saturday called the ACLU legal challenge baseless and said the agency would work with the Department of Justice to fight the lawsuit.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a video released last month that the Trump administration is sending the “worst of the worst” criminals to the naval base as she visited Guantanamo. “They won’t be there for long,” she added.
Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang was recently designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the State Department, and federal officials have said that removing members of the gang is a priority.
Mexican drug cartels and the Salvadoran gang MS-13 were also designated as terror groups by the State Department.
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