Immigrant Detainees Want Court to Pause Guantanamo Transfers

Noncitizens in US custody are challenging the Trump administration’s bid to detain them in Guantanamo Bay, which they say is illegal because the military base is in Cuba.

The Immigration and Nationality Act doesn’t see Cuba as a valid removal destination, nor does it allow the US to detain people outside the US, the lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia says. The plaintiffs from Venezuela, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh expressed concern that the naval station is ill-suited to hold so many detainees, especially when the US has ample capability on its own soil.

The lawsuit calls the Trump administration effort to detain up to “30,000 people” at Guantanamo a fear tactic, and says the conditions at the base have led to several suicide attempts. It also says that despite the government reporting it’s transferring people with violent criminal records, “many detainees lacked any criminal record at all, and some were apprehended on immigration charges immediately upon entering the United States.”

Guantanamo has held a small amount of immigrants intercepted at sea, as well as terrorism suspects in the wake of 9/11. But it hasn’t been used for years for large-scale detention. President Donald Trump said the expansion of the naval base were part of his effort to “halt the border invasion, dismantle criminal cartels, and restore national sovereignty.”

Counsel for the plaintiffs, American Civil Liberties Union, International Refugee Assistance Project, and Center for Constitutional Rights, say in the complaint that the government only allowed a different set of detainees to have limited access to legal counsel after they sued in a case pending before Judge Carl J. Nichols. Nichols is also assigned to this case.

The lawsuit also says the earlier case, Las Americas, came before government “abruptly” deported several dozen detainees from Guantanamo to Venezuela. “The government has not explained why it could not have deported the first wave of 177 Venezuelans from within the United States.”

The plaintiffs bring five claims against the government under the Administrative Procedure Act, the Fifth Amendment, habeas corpus, as well as the INA.

The plaintiffs want a court to bar future transfers to Guantanamo Bay, and award attorneys’ fees.

The Department of Justice didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The case is Espinoza Escalona v. Noem, D.D.C., No. 1:25-cv-00604, 3/1/25.