Attorneys Sue to Block 10 Migrants' Transfer to Guantanamo

The legal action, filed in a federal court in Washington, follows earlier efforts by the same legal team to gain access to migrants already held at the U.S. naval base in Cuba. The lawsuit is supported by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which has raised concerns about the mistreatment of detainees at the facility.

The lawsuit includes testimonies from former detainees at Guantanamo Bay, who described their experiences of harsh and abusive conditions. One detainee described the facility as a "living hell," recounting stories of confinement in small, windowless cells, constant artificial lighting that disrupted sleep patterns, and insufficient food and medical care. Many detainees also reported being subjected to physical and verbal abuse, while some attempted suicide or were punished by being tied to chairs for long periods of time, or even deprived of water.

Raul David Garcia, a former Guantanamo detainee returned to Venezuela, said, “It was easy to lose the will to live.” He explained that during his previous captivity in Mexico, at least his captors identified themselves. "In Guantanamo, we were just abandoned in a system that treated us as less than human."

Jonathan Alejandro Alviares Armas, another former detainee, detailed the brutal conditions he endured, including being denied water or physically restrained as punishment for protesting. “Guantanamo is a living hell,” he asserted.

In a separate legal action in New Mexico, a federal judge blocked the transfer of three Venezuelan immigrants to Guantanamo Bay on February 9, marking another significant challenge to the administration’s policies.

The migrants involved in the most recent lawsuit arrived in the U.S. in 2023 or 2024, with seven hailing from Venezuela and the others from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. According to the lawsuit, the Afghan and Pakistani migrants fled Taliban threats, while two of the Venezuelans were tortured for their political beliefs.

One of the Venezuelan plaintiffs, Walter Estiver Salazar, said he was kidnapped by government officials after refusing an order to cut off electricity to his town. “They beat me, suffocated me, and finally shot me. I barely survived,” he recalled.

While the Trump administration has made public its intent to deport large numbers of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally, the government has not provided detailed information on those being transferred to Guantanamo Bay. Former President Trump has previously suggested that the base could hold up to 30,000 detainees, including individuals he described as “the worst” or “high-risk criminal aliens.”

The White House, along with the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit.

Critics have long denounced the use of Guantanamo Bay for holding non-citizens. For decades, the base primarily housed detainees linked to the September 11 attacks. A separate military detention center at the facility once held up to 800 individuals, but that number has dwindled to just 15, including alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Human rights advocates continue to condemn the detention conditions at Guantanamo, which have been described in multiple reports, including a 2023 United Nations inspection that accused the U.S. of subjecting detainees to “ongoing cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.”

The attorneys argue that the proposed transfers to Guantanamo Bay violate the detainees’ constitutional right to due process, guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment. They also contend that federal immigration law prohibits the transfer of non-Cuban migrants to the detention facility. The lawsuit further asserts that the U.S. has no legal authority to detain individuals on foreign soil, especially since the naval base is located in Cuba, a foreign country.

The latest legal challenge adds to mounting opposition to the Trump administration’s policies regarding immigration detention, with civil rights groups and legal experts warning that the use of Guantanamo Bay for non-terrorist detainees could set a dangerous precedent.