Venezuelan detainees in US file motion over possible Guantanamo transfer

(Reuters) : Three Venezuelan men detained in New Mexico on Sunday asked a federal judge to preemptively block the U.S. government from sending them to a military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to a court filing.

A legal team from the Center for Constitutional Rights said in a written statement the men have not yet been ordered to be transferred to Guantanamo. They said the men have a pending case before a federal court in New Mexico challenging what they say is their unlawfully prolonged detention after they fled Venezuela seeking protection in the United States.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the men’s request to not be sent to Guantanamo or if they even planned to send the three detainees to the base in Cuba.

President Donald Trump said in late January that his administration planned to create capacity to house up to 30,000 migrants at the U.S. naval base, best known for a separate high-security prison used for foreign terrorism suspects.

The Trump administration last week moved to end protections against deportation for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans in the U.S.

“I fear being taken to Guantanamo because the news is painting it as a black hole … I also see that human rights are constantly violated at Guantanamo, so I fear what could happen to me if I get taken there,” Abrahan Barrios Morales, one of the detained men who is part of the lawsuit, said in the written rights’ group’s statement.

The American Civil Liberties Union on Friday demanded access to migrants flown by the U.S. military to Guantanamo Bay saying the Trump administration has provided virtually no information about the migrants and the detentions raise questions about violations of U.S. and international laws.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has given few details about the migrants sent to Guantanamo in the past week, saying the first cohort of about 10 people comprised alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua but declined to provide specifics about criminal charges or convictions.