A federal judge blocked Donald Trump’s administration from sending three Venezuelan immigrants to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba, which the president has turned into a detention facility for deported immigrants.
The president’s decision to keep up to 30,000 immigrants inside tents and camps at the military prison — which opened in 2002 to hold terrorism suspects during the War on Terror — has drawn international scrutiny from civil rights and humanitarian groups.
In a late-night order February 9, Judge Kenneth J. Gonzales temporarily blocked the transfer of three immigrants with a long-standing legal challenge against their “unconstitutionally prolonged” detention after fleeing Venezuela and seeking protection in the United States.
The three men have each been in detention with Immigration and Customs Enforcement “with no end in sight,” according to their complaint, which was first filed in September 2024.
“I fear being taken to Guantanamo because the news is painting it as a black hole,” Abrahan Barrios Morales, who has been in ICE custody since October 2023, said in a statement Monday.
“I also see that human rights are constantly violated at Guantanamo, so I fear what could happen to me if I get taken there,” he said.
Luis Perez Parra, who has also been in ICE custody since October 2023, said he fears Guantanamo “because I’ve seen on the news that it’s a maximum security prison.”
“I’m scared of how I’ll be treated there or that I’ll be tortured, that I won’t be able to communicate with my family or know when I’ll be released,” he said. “The news is releasing pictures of the faces of people associated with this, and if that were to be released in my home country, I’m scared of what that could do to me and my family’s safety.”
The Center for Constitutional Rights, which is representing the three men, “has labored for decades to close Guantanamo and secure accountability for human rights abuses perpetrated there against Haitian migrants in the 1990s and hundreds of Muslim men and boys post-9/11,” according to senior staff attorney Jessica Vosburgh.
“Now, the Trump administration is invoking the specter of Guantanamo, known around the world as a shameful symbol of torture and lawlessness, to terrorize our clients,” she said.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristie Noem has defended use of the facility, which the administration claims is being used to jail suspected Tren de Agua gang members and “the worst of the worst and illegal criminals,” according to Noem.
The three Venezuelan men, who passed credible fear interviews as part of their request for asylum, have been held at Otero County Processing Center in New Mexico for more than a year. They filed a motion on Sunday for a restraining order that would block their transfer.
The Center for Constitutional Rights argued in court documents that their clients’ “procedural rights will not be fully respected” by the Trump administration.
In his order on Sunday night, Judge Gonzales wrote that “considering the uncertainty surrounding jurisdiction, the Court determines it is necessary to enjoin the transfer of Petitioners to Guantanamo Bay.”
More than a dozen civil rights groups have pressed the Trump administration for details about the incarceration of detained immigrants, and to immediately grant access to attorneys to represent them.
“Transferring people from the Otero County Processing Center, where we have ready access to visit our clients, to an offshore prison thousands of miles away from counsel, is appalling,” said Zoe Bowman, supervising attorney at Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center.
“The Trump administration is using a facility famous for torture to unnecessarily intimidate and terrorize migrants like our clients, who only wish to reunite with their families and loved ones in the U.S.,” she said.
The Independent has requested comment from Homeland Security.
