The sending of migrants to Guantanamo faces their first legal obstacles in the United States | International

Once again, the judges have filed between Donald Trump and the fulfillment of their plans and orders. He has now been a federal magistrate in the state of New Mexico, Judge Kenneth Gonzales, who has issued a temporary order to prohibit three Venezuelan irregular immigrants, retained in a Customs and Border Control Detention Center (ICE), can Be transferred to the Naval Base of Guantanamo, in Cuba. The Republican wants to build a great center at the base to send there to migrants that cannot deport their countries of origin. Several deported groups have begun to arrive on the island since last week.

The case of the three Venezuelans is very concrete and, therefore, not very extrapolable for the situations of many other irregular migrants arrested. But it highlights the multiple legal problems facing the presidential order to transfer undocumented people to one of the most dark fame places on Earth.

At the base is the Guantanamo prison, established after the attacks of September 11, 2001 to enclose “enemy fighters” in the war against terrorism that George W bush declared and where generalized torture and abuses of the generalized tortures and abuses of the Human Rights. In his day he came to house more than 200 Muslim prisoners. Today he still retains fifteen of them, of which only two have been judged and convicted.

The three Venezuelan plaintiffs, who claim to have left their country of origin in search of protection, are already pending another demand in New Mexico against their prolonged retention at the Otero County Processing Center, which they denounce that it is illegal. Due to this, they were already represented by lawyers from the Constitutional Rights Center, a civil rights defender.

The trio would have recognized some of his companions of the Otero detention center in the photos and videos that have been disseminated in the media and social networks of the prisoners transferred to Guantanamo in recent days. As their profile was similar to that of their former companions, they felt that they were also in danger of being sent to the military base. Therefore, they asked their lawyers to take the initiative and claim before the courts to prohibit their trip before it took place.

“I am afraid that they take me to Guantanamo because the news paints it like a black hole … I also see that human rights are constantly violated in Guantanam Petitioners, Abraham Barrios Morales, in words collected by the Constitutional Rights Center.

Another prisoner, Luis Pérez Parra, alleges that he has seen in the news that is a maximum security prison. “I am afraid how they are going to treat me there or that I will be tortured, that I cannot communicate with my family or know when I will be able to leave.” This migrant also remembers that the media have spread images of those transferred to the Naval Base.

The lawyers of the three have strongly criticized the possibility of a transfer of their represented, of which they claim that they have not committed any serious crime – choke the border illegally is an administrative fault – but they are deprived of liberty for months. The three were intercepted for a long time, but they have not been able to be returned to Venezuela due to the bad relations between Washington and Caracas, for which the regime of Nicolás Maduro did not accept repatriation flights of their deported nationals. Caracas raised that negative after a visit from Trump’s special envoy Richard Grenelll.

“Transfering to people from the center of Otero County, where we can normally access our clients, a overseas prison thousands of kilometers from their legal advice, is terrible. Our clients have already suffered prolonged arrest and have undergone due violations due for months. The Trump administration is using famous facilities for torture in order to intimidate and terrorize unnecessarily to migrants such as our clients, who only want to meet with their relatives and loved ones in the United States, ”said Zoe Bowman, prosecutor of the center of the center The Americas for the defense of immigrants in New Mexico.

Since Trump announced two weeks ago his plan to send to Guantanamo to 30,000 irregular migrants, human rights organizations have denounced the initiative as a step of doubtful legality. The presidential instructions urged the Department of National Security to “provide additional detention space for high priority criminal immigrants present in the United States.”

Organizations point out that, in itself, the transfer of irregular migrants to a territory outside the United States to be held indefinitely presents serious legal problems. They also denounce that, once at the base, migrants will have serious problems to access their lawyers, if they have them, or to be able to have legal representation if they lack it. Nor is it clear if they would have access to some type of social services.

At present, Guantanamo, where about 6,000 people live, is connected to the United States by a military flight a week, which supplies fresh food facilities, and a ship that arrives twice a month with the rest of the material needs of the Naval Base.

On Friday, the American Union for Civil Liberties (ACLU) demanded that access to migrants transferred to Guantanamo on military flights be allowed. ACLU denounces that Donald Trump’s administration has barely provided information on the identities or situation of these people.

The National Security Department (DHS), on which ICE depends, has provided very few details about migrants sent to the base. The first flight, with about ten pesonas on board, arrived last week to Guantanamo. The DHS argues that this dozen people are suspected of belonging to the Venezuelan criminal gang of Aragua, but has not given details about individual cases. Nor did he want to specify whether these people are accused of any crime or have a history. It is estimated that after that first dozen they have already reached the base near other forty migrants.

Last week, Donald Trump’s government announced the withdrawal of temporary protection status to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans present in the United States. This status, better known among its beneficiaries for its acronym, TPS, is granted to citizens of countries affected by natural or other catastrophes. The TPS allows its beneficiaries to work legally in the United States and protects them from the threat of deportation. Other countries also receive this program, including El Salvador, Guatemala or Haiti.