The Government’s Plan to Hold Migrants at Guantanamo Bay Just Got Shut Down by the Courts
President Donald Trump promised to utilize Guantanamo Bay to hold migrants as part of his mass deportation plans. Those plans seem to be coming to a sudden stop after legal challenges. President Trump originally announced that the federal government would be building structures to hold 30,000 expected migrants. Concerns over the conditions and the lack of communication with detainees on the island seem to have thrown a wrench in President Trump’s plans.
The federal government’s plan to house migrants at Guantanamo Bay seems to be over, for now
President Trump promised a 30,000-person expansion to Guantanamo Bay’s infrastructure to house migrants being deported. The announcement received scrutiny immediately from political pundits and legal experts. Yet, the federal government housed 177 Venezuelan migrants there until just recently. The sudden action to move the migrants off the naval base is bringing fresh scrutiny to the federal government.
Lawsuits filed by civil rights groups, family members of detainees, and immigration attorneys challenged the Trump administration’s move. According to The Independent, the lawsuit demanded access to the detainees for legal counsel. The U.S. Constitution protects the right to legal counsel in the 6th Amendment.
However, attorneys representing the federal government claim that migrants have no right to legal counsel. The Trump administration also stated that the people being moved to Guantanamo Bay were high-risk. However, court filings show that many of those who were sent to the naval base were low-risk, and some had no criminal records.
The Trump administration cleared migrants in a hurry
Pressure from legal action seemed to push the administration’s hand to reassess their Guantanamo Bay plans. The federal government quickly cleared migrants out of Guantanamo Bay and sent them to Venezuela after responding to the lawsuits.
According to court filings, attorneys representing the U.S. federal government claimed that using the detention center is temporary. The federal government claims this underscores the temporary use of Guantanamo Bay.
The naval base has a dark history of human rights violations
Guantanamo Bay has a long history of violating and abusing the human rights of detainees. For years, prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay have tried to expose the conditions they endure. Abu Zubaydah, one of the forever prisoners at the naval base, has spent more than 20 years imprisoned. He captured his treatment using drawings and released them to his attorney, who publicized them.
One of the most atrocious moments in Guantanamo Bay’s history is the Haitian refugee crisis in the 1990s. In 1991, The U.S. government detained Haitians at Guantanamo Bay as they fled the island following the overthrow of their government. Once detained, the U.S. passed a strict repatriation program for Haitians, but they isolated 270 Haitians. The isolated Haitians were all HIV-positive or family with people who had HIV.
The Trump administration is looking to follow the same playbook to house migrants in Guantanamo Bay. For now, the plans seem to be stopped.
