Plaintiffs – ten noncitizens in immigration custody at imminent risk of transfer from the United States to the U.S. Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (“Guantanamo”) – filed this lawsuit to block transfers of immigration detainees to Guantanamo and the detention of immigrants there. In January, President Trump issued a memo directing the expansion of the Migrant Operations Center at Guantanamo as additional detention space for “high-priority criminal aliens,” but many of the immigrants transferred to Guantanamo since have lacked any criminal record at all.
Plaintiffs allege that the transfers are not only in violation of federal law that does not allow for transfers to or detention at Guantanamo, but that the transfers are being taken for punitive reasons - to deter migrants from coming to the U.S. and to coerce those already in the U.S. into accepting deportation - and the conditions in which detainees are held at Guantanamo are abusive and unconstitutional. They allege violations of the Immigration and Nationality Act, the Administrative Procedure Act, and the due process requirements of the Fifth Amendment. Co-counsel are the ACLU, the Center for Constitutional Rights, International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), and ACLU of the District of Columbia.
The same day that Plaintiffs filed the lawsuit, they also filed an emergency motion to block the transfers specifically of the named Plaintiffs to Guantanamo. After a hearing on March 14, the Court denied Plaintiffs’ motion, but ordered Defendants to provide protocols for notifying the Court and Plaintiffs’ counsel about future transfers of Plaintiffs to Guantanamo during the span of the litigation. Defendants proposed to provide notice within two business days of transfer, and on April 1 notified the Court that they had transferred “one or more Plaintiffs” to Guantanamo a couple days prior. After that, Plaintiffs requested that the Court order Defendants to instead provide 24-hour advance notice before the transfer of remaining Plaintiffs.
On May 19, the government moved to dismiss the case. On May 22, Plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed the case without prejudice due to most of the plaintiffs having already been deported.
Technical Summary
Plaintiffs allege that the transfer of immigration detainees to Guantanamo is an unlawful removal in violation of the INA, which provides a statutory framework for determining removal destination, and the detention of immigration detainees there is also in violation of the INA because the statute provides no authority to detain Plaintiffs outside of the United States. They allege violations of the APA as well, arguing that transfer to and detention at Guantanamo is “an illogical and unreasonable choice when considering ICE’s detention and operational objectives” and that Defendants have acted beyond the scope of the President’s Memorandum. Finally, they allege violations of the Fifth Amendment based on the punitive use of detention at Guantanamo and harsh detention conditions there.
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