Immigration Officials Defend Authority to Hold Migrants at Gitmo

U.S. immigration and military authorities disclosed Monday that immigrants from 27 countries were being held at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station in Cuba, while revealing new details of conditions of confinement and defending the government's authority to transfer and hold immigrants at the military base.

Court filings on behalf of the Homeland Security and Defense departments indicated that 40 immigrants with final deportation orders were being held at Guantanamo Bay as of Friday — with 23 labelled “high risk” and held individually in cells. The remainder were held in another area of special housing for migrants, in groups of up to six.

Civil rights attorneys sued the Trump administration this month to prevent it from transferring 10 migrants detained in the U.S. to Guantanamo Bay and filed statements from men held there who said they were mistreated in conditions that of one of them called “a living hell.”

Responding to the lawsuit, Justice Department attorneys argued Monday that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has broad authority to hold immigrants with final removal orders at Guantanamo Bay “for only so long as their removal remains significantly likely to occur in the reasonably foreseeable future.”

U.S. immigration and military authorities “do not need to show that (Naval Station Guantanamo Bay) is essential to that plan, logistically uncomplicated, or that it is the least expensive option,” the Trump administration argued in the court filings.

Administration attorneys also said “the government does not dispute that the mass removal efforts are intended in part to deter illegal migration.”

New written testimonials from ICE and military leaders say that Guantanamo Bay detainees are being “treated with dignity and and respect," describing access to legal counsel, regular meals, laundry service and medical care as ”not inconsistent with other ICE detention facilities."