Immigration and civil rights advocates have renewed concerns that immigrants detained at Guantanamo Bay are being held in extreme isolation, cut off from meaningful access to legal counsel or candid communication with relatives, according to a new court filing Saturday.
In a lawsuit brought on behalf or two Nicaraguan immigrants held at the U.S. Navy base on Cuba, attorneys say there is a climate of “extreme fear and intimidation” that interferes with constitutional rights to due process and legal counsel.
The revised lawsuit asks a federal judge in Washington to intervene on behalf of all future immigrants at Guantanamo, which authorities have used as a way station for immigrants whom President Donald Trump calls “the worst,” with final removal orders, as his administration seeks to ramp up mass deportations.
“Officers at Guantánamo have created a climate of extreme fear and intimidation where immigrant detainees are afraid to communicate freely with their counsel,” the lawsuit says, adding that conditions are more restrictive than at mainland detention facilities, prisons and in some instances law-of-war military custody at Guantanamo Bay.
U.S. Southern Command, which oversees the base, declined to comment on the lawsuit and referred requests to the Department of Homeland Security, which did not immediately respond to an email Saturday.
In March a federal judge ruled against advocates’ attempts to help migrants at Guantanamo and prevent further transfers there, days after the administration moved all migrants out of the facility.
Two Nicaraguans who arrived since then have submitted court declarations charting their journey through detention centers in Louisiana to Cuba and describing their anguished concerns that phone conversations are being monitored and might lead to punishment or reprisals.
Attorneys have no in-person contact with clients at the base and say they are chained and placed in restraints during legal calls that are broadcast on speakerphone with officers seated outside an open doorway. That undermines the right to confidential communication and attorney-client privilege, the lawsuit says.
The complaint also says some detainees have been interrogated by the FBI about possible gang affiliation while surrounded by military officers. One person was stripped in search of a missing toothbrush, and another was locked in a concrete cell with no windows or lights for four days, it adds.
“I have been allowed to speak to my family about 20 times. Each call is about 5 minutes,” Johon Suazo-Muller said in a written declaration to the court that was translated into English.
He said he immigrated to the U.S. from Nicaragua in October 2023 in search of asylum from political conflict and a better life.
“I am not allowed to give any information about my time at Guantanamo,” Suazo-Muller said. “I can’t say where I’m at or details about how I’m doing.”