ACLU Sues Trump Administration Over Guantanamo Bay Detainees
By: Ana Velasquez Feburary 20th 2025
A collection of immigrant rights and legal aid groups led by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) are suing the Trump administration. Demanding that migrants transported by the US government to a US detention facility In Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, be allowed access to lawyers.
The detention center, also a military prison, at the Guantanamo Bay Navy base opened on January 11th, 2002. It was created to house suspected terrorist captured following the Global “War of terrorism, started by the 9/11 terrorism attack.
The Migrant Operation Center established to process migrants found at sea is now housing migrants captured by Trump’s 2025 executive order of expanding deportation targets. Sending many ICE agents to major cities and states to capture migrants with mostly criminal records, that will most likely be sent to the Guantanamo Bay detention center.
The lawsuit suggests that the Trump administration sent dozens of migrants to Guantanamo Bay and is now keeping them isolated, with no way of communication to family, the outside world, and most importantly, to attorneys and lawyers. They want migrants to be able to talk to attorneys via voice call, video calls, or through emails, if they can’t be visited in Cuba.
The lawsuit also says that the isolation was no coincidence due to the migrants being so far away and not being able to communicate with attorneys that can explain their civil rights and challenge the detention.
Most of the migrants’ families have found out where their family members have been sent to through unconsented photos (listed above) which were released by the Defense and homeland security. Lee Gerlernt, a lawyer form ACLU, consider these “photo ops” because the detainees get no say in whether, they want to be photographed or exposed to the world with these photos.
Gelernt also said the terrorist suspects are allowed to see lawyers showing that they have less rights than the “enemy”.
Not only is the ACLU suing the Trump administration over the rights of the Guantanamo Bay migrants, but they are also suing the administration over an executive order that strips birth right citizenship for babies born in the U.S to migrant parents.
“Denying citizenship to U.S.-born children is not only unconstitutional — it’s also a reckless and ruthless repudiation of American values. Birthright citizenship is part of what makes the United States the strong and dynamic nation that it is. This order seeks to repeat one of the gravest errors in American history, by creating a permanent subclass of people born in the U.S. who are denied full rights as Americans. We will not let this attack on newborns and future generations of Americans go unchallenged.” Says Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union.
The executive order has now been blocked by a federal court in New Hampshire.
