Ten immigrants held in ICE detention in Arizona and elsewhere won’t be sent to Guantanamo Bay for now. That’s according to the latest court order in a lawsuit filed by the ACLU against the Trump administration.
The plaintiffs include three men from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan – all three of whom sought asylum in the U.S. in 2024 and are now detained at ICE facilities Eloy and Florence, Arizona.
Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrant Rights Project and a litigator in the case, says all the men have final orders for removal from the U.S. and are at risk for getting transferred to Guantanamo Bay as part of an initiative rolled out by the Trump administration.
The administration has said transfers to the U.S. military base are gang members and high-level criminals. But Gelernt says questions remain about specifics.
“We actually know very little about who is still there, much less all about their cases, the government is refusing to tell us who they’re sending there, who is there at any given time, or when they’re leaving, so right now, we know nothing,” Genernt said.
For a time, Gelernt says, it seemed like only Venezuelan nationals were being sent to the site, but it’s since expanded to several other nationalities. He says no one part of the suit fits the profile of a high level criminal or gang member, but with final orders of removal and few details about who is being targeted, they’re worried.
“It’s very difficult to find people in detention centers, but we came across these ten who have final orders of removal, they’re worried about being sent to Guantanamo – so, we signed them up and said we would try to get them emergency relief,” he said. “We have asked the government, if you give us 72 hours notice before you send anybody to Guantanamo, we won’t have to file lawsuits in advance. The government has refused that.”
The suit, filed over the weekend, argues transferring immigration detainees from U.S. soil to Guantanamo unlawful and unprecedented. It also references testimonials from detainees already sent there — including details that allege abuse by guards and suicide attempts among detainees.
“Detainees are confined in solitary, windowless cells for at least 23 hours per day, if not more. They are allowed extremely limited time outside of their cells, are constantly shackled and invasively strip searched, and are never permitted to contact family members,” the suit reads.
“Guards engage in verbal and physical abuse, including restraining people to a ‘punishment chair’ for hours, withholding water as retaliation, threatening to shoot detainees, and fracturing an individual’s hand by slamming a radio into it.”
An emergency motion filed by the ACLU preventing plaintiffs from being transferred was approved Sunday. In a filing Monday, District Judge Carl Nichols set a court hearing for March 14.
Neither the Department of Homeland Security nor ICE responded to questions about the case or details about Guantanamo detainment.
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