US says holding migrants from 27 countries at Guantanamo Bay
US President Donald Trump has said detention facilities at Guantanamo would be expanded to hold as many as 30,000 people
US 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 Defence 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 lawyer sued the Trump administration this month to prevent it from transferring 10 migrants detained in the US to Guantanamo Bay and filed statements from men held there who said they were mistreated in conditions that one of them called “a living hell”.
Responding to the lawsuit, Justice Department lawyers argued Monday that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement had 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”.
US 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.
