Judge denies temporary relief in lawsuits challenging Guantánamo migrant detentions

A federal judge on Friday declined to grant temporary injunctive relief to plaintiffs in two lawsuits challenging the Trump administration’s efforts to detain migrants at Guantánamo Bay.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols said the plaintiffs — in one lawsuit, a coalition of migrant family members and immigrant legal services organizations, and in the other, 10 migrants — failed to show irreparable harm or a likelihood of success on the merits in their respective challenges.

He noted that, at present, no detainees with final orders of removal are currently being held at the facility in Cuba that has been used to house military prisoners, including several involved in the 9/11 attacks. Because of that, the harm the challengers alleged is neither “imminent” nor “irreparable” he said when denying their requests for temporary restraining orders.

Plaintiffs in both lawsuits are backed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

The coalition of legal organizations and family members of migrants who were transferred from the United States and held at Guantánamo filed suit last month. They asked the judge to ensure detainees at the facility are provided in-person access to lawyers, access to notices posted in multiple languages and to ensure detainees could tell their family members at which facility they were housed.

The 10 migrants sued earlier this month to block their possible transfers to Guantánamo.

Lee Gelernt, an ACLU lawyer who represented the challengers in both cases during a hearing Friday, warned that his clients’ harm would be irreparable were they transferred to the facility, citing perilous conditions at the camp such as shackles and solitary confinement that he said there was “no way to justify.”

However, the migrants’ legal teams would likely not know the government moved them until after it happened. He called the scenario a “Catch-22”

“We don’t know that the moment we walk out of court they (won’t) be sent to Guantánamo,” Gelernt said.

The judge expressed skepticism almost immediately.

“Who is affected in any way at this time right now?” Nichols asked.

DOJ lawyer Drew Ensign called the lawsuits the “weirdest prison conditions cases you’ve ever faced,” emphasizing that none of the challengers were currently detained at the facility.

He argued that detention capacity is “incredibly important,” and the government has the discretion to put in play facilities “lying there unused.”

When issuing his ruling, Nichols did say that “serious” questions remain as to whether the government has the authority to open detention centers extends to military bases overseas.

At Nichols’ request, Ensign said the government would agree to notify the judge if any of the plaintiffs were transferred to Guantánamo, at which point the challengers could renew their request for injunctive relief. However, he said he could not represent how long it might take to learn of that development to pass it along.

The judge ordered DOJ to get an answer to that question to inform whether he should direct the government to notify him on a faster timeline.

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