The new case, which for now is asking for a court to block the transfer of 10 men to the offshore base, is the first to directly challenge the policy.
The Trump administration faced the first direct legal challenge to its policy of sending migrants to the U.S. military base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, for continued immigration detention with a lawsuit filed on Saturday by a coalition of human rights and immigrant advocacy organizations.
“Plaintiffs seek this court’s intervention to put a stop to these cruel, unnecessary and illegal transfers to and detention at Guantánamo,” the newly filed complaint said.
The plaintiffs, led by the American Civil Liberties Union, are for now seeking a judicial stay to block the transfer of 10 migrants whom the coalition signed up to represent. But it appears to lay the groundwork to seek a potential broader order against the transfer policy, which has raised many novel legal issues.
The 10 migrants named in the lawsuit each has final removal orders, it said, and comes from countries including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Venezuela. The lawsuit asserts that none are gang members, and some have been specifically threatened with transfer to Guantánamo.
“In attempting to justify the transfers, the government has claimed that the individuals it sent to Guantánamo are members of gangs and dangerous criminals — the ‘worst of the worst,’” the complaint said, citing a remark in January by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.