President Trump has started sending immigrants not just to other countries, but also to Guantanamo Bay. What does this mean for immigrants in the United States? Especially since this time is different. As ProPublica points out: “This time, however, the migrants are from countries across the world, including from places that are willing to take them back, which has raised additional questions about whom the government is choosing to send there and why.”
Since February 4, 2025, the Trump administration has flown about 100 immigrant detainees in eight days to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. For those who do not know, that facility is better known for holding those who plotted the 9/11 terrorist attacks on United States soil. The administration has also distributed photos of some of the immigrants and will not release the names of those they are holding or provide the details of these people’s alleged crimes. They are being held while their loved ones can provide records from the detainees’ home countries about their criminal record (in some cases, the record is completely none-existent).
Speaking to ProPublica, Lee Gelernt, the lead attorney on the ACLU case says this is unprecedented. “Never before have people been taken from U.S. soil and sent to Guantanamo, and then denied access to lawyers and the outside world.” He says. “It is difficult to think of anything so flagrantly at odds with the fundamental principles on which our country was built.” In the Immigration and Nationality Act, which is in 8 USC §1362 “In any removal proceedings before an immigration judge and in any appeal proceedings before the Attorney General from any such removal proceedings, the person concerned shall have the privilege of being represented (at no expense to the Government) by such counsel, authorized to practice in such proceedings, as he shall choose.”
Which means, that the Trump administration is not providing counsel to those who would be put before an immigration judge. If you get stopped at the border for entering illegally, you usually are brought to a facility where they question you. If you are deemed to be released on your own recognizance, you are given a Notice to Appear with an A number. Then you are placed in the immigration court of the Executive Office of Immigration Review and given a hearing. This is the crux of the issue with sending these immigrants to Guantanamo Bay.
In response to the questions, the Department of Homeland Security has insisted that some but not all of the immigrants they have transferred to Guantanamo are violent gang members and others are “high-threat” criminals. An official statement by the agency says: “All these individuals committed a crime by entering the United States illegally.” The spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin responded to the ACLU by saying there was a phone system that detainees could use to reach attorneys. Adding: “If the AMERICAN Civil Liberties Union cares more about highly dangerous criminal aliens including murders & vicious gang members than they do about American citizens — they should change their name.” The spokesperson forgot that the American Civil Liberties Union stands for all people on American soil, not just Americans who are citizens and lawful permanent residents.
Lawyers, have rightfully, expressed concern that the government will use national security concerns as a pretext to avoid any kind of scrutiny when it comes to immigration issues. This has not stopped federal agents from fanning out across the country and conducting raids in neighborhoods and workplaces, even going so far as detaining a lawful permanent resident for protesting Israeli ties to Columbia University. Even going so far as to set the stage for immigrants’ speech under the Trump administration.
At Guantanamo Bay itself, there was construction at the facility ramped up with 125 new structures rapidly assembled near the airfield. A Department of Homeland Security official confirmed to ABC News that military members have erected a total of 195 tents “in preparation to temporarily house illegal aliens.” Though, the administration has not used them for housing immigrants because they do not meet the standards set by the Department of Homeland Security.
Conditions in Guantanamo are abhorrent. One immigrant told ABC News that his room had cobwebs and a “disgusting smell.” He also said he spent ten days without a mattress and that he was denied phone calls with their relatives and families. Then he said “They give you food… but it’s like they don’t give you any, [it’s very little food. There came a point where I would lick the plate. They food had no salt, but I would still eat it as if it were very tasty, because I was hungry.”
Speaking about the lawsuit the ACLU has brought against the Trump administration, Lee Gelernt said the following: “The purpose of this second Guantanamo lawsuit is to prevent more people from being illegally sent to this notorious prison, where the conditions have now been revealed to be inhumane,” said Lee Gelernt, an ACLU attorney and lead counsel on the case. “The lawsuit is not claiming they cannot be detained in U.S. facilities, but only that they cannot be sent to Guantanamo.” The important thing here is that the lawsuit contends that the government has violated the right to due legal process, which is guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment. One of the other lawsuits argues that the United States government has no authority to hold people outside its territory and that the naval base remains part of Cuba, legally. Finally, they argue that Guantanamo Bay “does not have the infrastructure” to hold even ten people.
It should be stressed that these lawsuits are not challenging the authority to “detain the individuals on U.S. soil or to directly remove them to their home country or another statutorily authorized country, but the government’s unprecedented and unlawful decision to transfer and detain them at Guantanamo.” They argue there is no legitimate reason to do so and that the United States has the necessary capacity here in the country. What happens from here remains to be seen.