Immigrant Rights Groups Sue Trump Administration Claiming Communication With Migrants Taken to Guantanamo Has Been Cut Off

A coalition of immigrant rights and legal aid organizations, led by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration alleging that migrants transferred to the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay are being held without access to legal counsel or communication with the outside world.

The lawsuit contends that the administration has transferred dozens of migrants to the remote military facility, effectively holding them "incommunicado, without access to attorneys, family, or the outside world." The lawsuit seeks, at a minimum, to allow attorneys to communicate with the detainees via phone, video conference, or email.

The plaintiffs in the case include several organizations: the Center for Constitutional Rights, International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), and ACLU of the District of Columbia on behalf of several detained migrants' family members, as well as four legal aid groups that want to meet with the detainees: Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, American Gateways, and Americans for Immigrant Justice.

Some of the relatives involved in the suit claim they discovered their loved ones had been sent to Guantanamo after seeing government-released photographs of shackled men being loaded onto military planes, as NPR reports.

In its official statement regarding the lawsuit, the ACLU criticized the administration's actions. The organization's deputy director of the Immigrants' Rights Project, Lee Gelernt, said:

"By hurrying immigrants off to a remote island cut off from lawyers, family, and the rest of the world, the Trump administration is sending its clearest signal yet that the rule of law means nothing to it. It will now be up to the courts to ensure that immigrants cannot be warehoused on offshore islands"

The administration, which has characterized the detainees as "high-threat illegal aliens," asserts that the migrants will be held at Guantanamo temporarily until arrangements can be made for their deportation to their home countries or other ones willing to take them. However, the legal challenge argues that even individuals suspected of terrorism at Guantanamo have been granted legal representation, whereas the transferred migrants have not.

"The United States Constitution guarantees the right to counsel and due process of law," explained immigration lawyer Tahmina Watson to The Latin Times. "Yet, the design of the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center appears to undermine these fundamental rights. Currently, there is little reliable information about the detainees—their identities, immigration statuses, or whether they truly pose a 'high risk.' Nonetheless, every individual is entitled to due process, a cornerstone of American legal principles"

The suit is the latest legal undertaking by the ACLU, which has been busy challenging Trump's flurry of executive orders since reaching office. Just last week, the organization, along with other immigration advocacy groups, filed a federal lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump's executive order barring asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border. A previous lawsuit contested Trump's executive order seeking to deny birthright citizenship to certain U.S.-born children.