IS GUANTÁNAMO A BLACK HOLE FOR IMMIGRANTS?
“We are deeply troubled by the Trump administration’s opacity and lack of procedural safeguards, which effectively nullify our ability to challenge unlawful detention, ensure due process, and advocate for the rights of immigrants,” Javier Hidalgo, legal director at the immigration advocacy group RAICES, said in a statement after Wednesday’s lawsuit was filed.
The advocates who sued Wednesday have asked for information about the immigration status of those already detained at Guantánamo, who else might be sent there, and which agency has custody of them. (At least one US citizen was previously detained at Guantánamo by mistake, raising concerns that people with the right to remain in the US could be wrongfully detained there going forward.) They have also demanded that the Trump administration explain the legal authorities it is invoking to detain people at Guantánamo.
Answers to those questions would help inform what kind of legal obligations the Trump administration has toward these detainees.
“The government cannot attempt to subvert the statutory and constitutional rights afforded to these noncitizens in the United States by transferring them to an offshore prison and holding them incommunicado without access to counsel or any means of contact with the outside world,” the advocates wrote in a letter to the government earlier this week.
