A federal judge in the United States has placed limits on the Trump administration’s efforts to deport migrants held in Guantanamo Bay with few protections.
In a ruling on Thursday, District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston issued an order stating that the administration must give migrants an opportunity to raise concerns about the safety of the countries where they are being deported.
The ruling is the latest to advance concerns about the legality of Trump’s hardline moves on immigration and expansive interpretations of executive power.
The order is a victory for immigrant rights advocates who alleged that the administration had violated a previous court order by flying four Venezuelans held in the US military base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to El Salvador, although it remains to be seen how the White House will respond.
The administration challenged that order by arguing that it only applied to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), not the Department of Defense, which carried out the flight in question.
The Department of Justice has said that three of the four Venezuelans sent to El Salvador, where the administration has sent migrants to be warehoused in Salvadoran prisons, where abusive conditions and torture are widely alleged, are members of the Tren De Aragua gang, but it has frequently made similar claims with little evidence.
Immigrant rights groups have alleged that migrants are being held in Guantanamo Bay, previously used as a detention centre and torture site during the so-called “global war on terror”, in conditions of extreme isolation and without legal counsel.
“Officers at Guantanamo have created a climate of extreme fear and intimidation where immigrant detainees are afraid to communicate freely with their counsel,” a lawsuit brought on behalf of two Nicaraguan being held at Guantanamo states.
The complaint states that some detainees were interrogated about alleged gang affiliations while surrounded by military officers.
