Legal Battle Over Migrant Detention at Guantanamo Bay

U.S. government lawyers are expected to face off with attorneys for civil and immigration rights groups over the use of a U.S. naval base in Cuba to hold migrants slated for deportation. Arguments in the two lawsuits over operations at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, filed against the Department of Homeland Security and Secretary Kristi Noem, are set for a U.S. District Court in Washington on Friday. The suits allege that the U.S. government has overstepped its bounds by denying migrants sent to Guantanamo Bay access to legal representation and also by attempting to send migrants to the base's facilities without the proper legal authority in violation of the U.S. Constitution.

DHS officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the upcoming hearing, but they have repeatedly denied the allegations while criticizing the groups bringing the lawsuits.

President Donald Trump first raised the idea of using the U.S. naval base in Cuba as part of his administration's plans for mass deportations shortly after taking office in January. Homeland Security's Noem said the base, which features a secure prison to hold captured terrorists, would be used to house "the worst of the worst." Trump and other U.S. officials also suggested the base could be used to hold up to 30,000 migrants while they awaited deportation.

Those plans, however, never fully materialized. The U.S. began sending what officials described as "high threat illegal aliens" to Guantanamo Bay's detention center in early February, followed by other nonviolent migrants, who stayed at other facilities. At times, the facilities held close to 200 detainees, many of whom were deported to Honduras, Venezuela or other countries.

But despite efforts to prepare the facilities for more migrants, capacity has been limited. According to a U.S. defense official, who spoke to VOA on the condition of anonymity, the prison as currently configured can hold only 130 detainees, while the base's Migrant Operations Center and a temporary tent city can hold, at most, 550 people.

As VOA first reported, DHS officials decided to remove all 40 remaining migrants from the prison and other facilities at Guantanamo Bay this past Tuesday, flying them instead to the U.S. southern state of Louisiana. Neither DHS nor its subagency, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, have responded to requests for comment on the decision to evacuate migrants from the naval base or on their status or whereabouts since being returned to the U.S. mainland.

The move — and lack of communication — has drawn criticism from immigrants' rights groups, including some of those involved in the current litigation.