ACLU sues for access to migrants flown to Guantanamo this month

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This article was published 12/02/2025 (282 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Civil rights attorneys sued the Trump administration on Wednesday to gain access to detained migrants who they say have been flown to Guantanamo Bay and held there without being able to consult lawyers or speak to relatives.

The federal lawsuit, filed in Washington, D.C., and backed by the American Civil Liberties Union, says this is the first time in U.S. history that the government has detained non-citizens on civil immigration charges at the U.S. naval base in Cuba.

“And it is holding them incommunicado, without access to attorneys, family, or the outside world,” the lawsuit says.

The Department of Homeland Security, which is among the agencies sued, says there is a way for detainees to reach lawyers by telephone.

For decades, the naval base was primarily used to detain foreigners associated with the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. More than 50 detained migrants were transferred there this month and “effectively disappeared into a black box,” the lawsuit says.

“This isolation is no coincidence. Guantanamo is home to one of the most notorious prisons in the world, used when the U.S. government has attempted to operate in secret, without legal constraint or accountability,” the suit says.

The lawsuit’s plaintiffs include relatives of three immigrants from Venezuela who were sent to Guantanamo from immigration detention facilities in Texas. The suit accuses government officials of violating their constitutional rights to due process and free speech.

The plaintiffs’ attorneys are seeking a court order allowing them to meet with the detainees. They also want an order requiring officials to provide the location of a detainee within 24 hours of their transfer to Guantanamo.

The first U.S. military flight deporting migrants from the U.S. to Guantanamo landed in Cuba on Feb. 4, according to a U.S. official. It was the first step in an expected surge in the number of migrants sent to the U.S. base.

President Donald Trump has said Guantanamo has the capacity to hold as many as 30,000 people. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was assigned to Guantanamo when he was on active duty, has called it a “perfect place” to house migrants.

Approximately 300 service members are supporting the detention operations at Guantanamo. That number is expected to fluctuate.

Trump has vowed to deport millions of the estimated 11.7 million people in the U.S. illegally. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Feb. 5 that more than 8,000 people had been arrested in immigration enforcement actions since Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration.

The lawsuit’s plaintiffs also include four advocacy groups: Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, American Gateways and Americans for Immigrant Justice.

They sued the Defense Department, the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and their respective department secretaries. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and its acting director also are named as defendants.

“It’s troubling enough that we are even sending immigrants from the U.S. to Guantanamo, but it’s beyond the pale that we are holding them incommunicado, without access to attorneys, family or the outside world,” ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt said in a statement.

Attorneys from the Center for Constitutional Rights and the International Refugee Assistance Project also represent the plaintiffs.

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Associated Press writer Rebecca Santana contributed to this report.