Civil rights attorneys sued the Trump administration Saturday to prevent it from transferring 10 migrants including a Bangladeshi detained in the US to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
They also filed statements from men held there who said they were mistreated there in conditions that of one of them called 鈥榓 living hell.鈥�
The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Washington, comes shortly after the same legal team sought access to migrants already held at the US naval base. It is backed by the American Civil Liberties Union.
Attorneys also submitted testimonies from individuals who had been detained at Guantanamo, describing harsh conditions. Detainees reported being confined in small, windowless cells with constant lighting that disrupted sleep. They also faced inadequate food, poor medical care, and verbal and physical abuse. Some detainees attempted suicide, while others were punished by being tied to chairs for hours or denied water.
鈥業t was easy to lose the will to live,鈥� said Raul David Garcia, a former Guantanamo detainee sent back to Venezuela. 鈥業 had been kidnapped in Mexico before, and at least my captors there told me their names.鈥�
Another former detainee sent back to Venezuela, Jonathan Alejandro Alviares Armas, reported that fellow detainees were sometimes denied water or 鈥榯ied up in a chair outside our cells for up to several hours鈥� as punishment, including for protesting conditions.
鈥楪uantanamo is a living hell,鈥� he said.
In another, separate federal lawsuit filed in New Mexico, a federal judge on February 9 blocked the transfer of three immigrants from Venezuela being held in that state to Guantanamo Bay.
The 10 men involved in the latest lawsuit came to the US in 2023 or 2024, seven from Venezuela, and the others from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
The lawsuit said the Afghan and Pakistani migrants were fleeing threats from the Taliban, and two of the Venezuelans had been tortured by the government there for their political views.
One of the Venezuelans, Walter Estiver Salazar, said government officials kidnapped him after he refused to follow an order to cut off his town鈥檚 electricity.
鈥楾he officials beat me, suffocated me, and eventually shot me,鈥� he said. 鈥業 barely survived.鈥�
The White House and the Defence and Homeland Security departments did not immediately respond to emails Saturday seeking comment about the latest lawsuit. The two agencies are among the defendants.
Trump has promised mass deportations of immigrants living in the US illegally and has said Guantanamo Bay, also known as 鈥楪itmo,鈥� has space for up to 30,000 of them.
He also has said he plans to send 鈥榯he worst鈥� or high-risk 鈥榗riminal aliens鈥� to the base in Cuba. The administration has not released specific information on who is being transferred, so it is not clear what crimes they are accused of committing in the US and whether they have been convicted in court, or merely been charged or arrested.
At least 50 migrants have been transferred already to Guantanamo Bay, and the civil rights attorneys believe the number now may be about 200.
They have said it is the first time in US history that the government has detained noncitizens on civil immigration charges there. For decades, the naval base was primarily used to detain foreigners associated with the September 11, 2001, attacks.
A separate military detention centre once held 800 people, but that number has dwindled to 15, including 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Critics have said for years that the centre is notorious for poor conditions for detainees. A 2023 report from a United Nations inspector said detainees faced 鈥榦n-going cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment,鈥� though the U.S. rejected much of her criticism.
The latest lawsuit contends that the transfers violate the men鈥檚 right to due legal process, guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution
The lawsuit also argued that federal immigration law bars the transfer of non-Cuban migrants from the US to Guantanamo Bay; that the US government has no authority to hold people outside its territory; and the naval base remains part of Cuba legally. The transfers are also described as arbitrary.
