Court Blocks U.S. From Sending 3 Venezuelan Migrants to Guantanamo

[SouthBayDem]

Last edited Tue Feb 11, 2025, 12:37 AM - Edit history (1)

Source: NY Times (gift link)

A federal judge barred the U.S. government on Sunday from sending three detained Venezuelan men to the Navy base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, according to a lawyer for the migrants.

Lawyers for the men, who are detained at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in New Mexico, asked the court on Sunday evening for a temporary restraining order, opening the first legal front against the Trump administration’s new policy of sending undocumented migrants to Guantánamo.

Within an hour of the filing, which came at the start of the Super Bowl, Judge Kenneth J. Gonzales of the Federal District Court for New Mexico, convened a hearing by videoconference and verbally granted the restraining order, said Baher Azmy, the legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, which is helping represent the migrants.

Immigration and human rights advocates have been stymied in immediately challenging the Trump administration’s policy of sending migrants to Guantánamo, in part because the government has not released the identities of the roughly 50 men it is believed to have flown there so far.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/09/us/politics/venezuelan-migrants-lawsuit-guantanamo.html?unlocked_article_code=1.v04.eO43.SNPjBk52JT_e&smid=url-share

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FJC biography of Judge Gonzales:

Federal Judicial Service:
Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico
Nominated by Barack Obama on January 4, 2013, to a seat vacated by Bruce D. Black. Confirmed by the Senate on June 17, 2013, and received commission on August 9, 2013. Served as chief judge, 2025-present.

Education:
University of New Mexico, B.A., 1988
University of New Mexico School of Law, J.D., 1994

Professional Career:

Law clerk, Hon. Joseph F. Baca, New Mexico Supreme Court, 1994-1996
Legislative assistant, U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, 1996-1999
Assistant U.S. attorney, District of New Mexico, 1999-2010
U.S. Army Reserve, 2001-
U.S. Army major, 2008-2009
U.S. attorney for the District of New Mexico, 2010-2013

[sheshe2]

1. This from your link.

The filing also said that the men had heard rumors that more such transfers were coming, and that they “fit the profile of those the administration has prioritized for detention in Guantánamo, i.e. Venezuelan men detained in the El Paso area with (false) charges of connections with the Tren de Aragua gang.”

That lawsuit argues that the men cannot be held in perpetual detention and so must be freed. Their filing says that any transfer to Guantánamo would make it difficult for them to continue to communicate with their lawyers and could open the door to the government’s arguing that the court no longer has jurisdiction.

[Silent Type]

2. Kudos to Center for Constitutional Right. Don't know much about them, otherwise.

[SunSeeker]

3. Why is Guantanamo still open? It costs a fortune to house inmates there.

Why isn't Elon trying to shut it down for being wasteful?

[reACTIONary]

4. Because...

.... fraudulently wasting human lives is not the sort of fraud and waste they are worried about.