Representatives from the Department of Homeland Security have published images depicting migrants boarding planes destined for Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

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A coalition of advocacy groups focused on immigrant rights and legal assistance, spearheaded by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), has initiated legal action against the Trump administration, insisting that migrants transported by the government to a U.S. detention facility in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, receive legal representation.

In a recent lawsuit, it is claimed that the Trump administration, following the transfer of numerous migrants to the isolated Caribbean site in recent weeks, is now “keeping them without communication, devoid of access to attorneys, family, or the outside world.” The complaint asserts that “this confinement is not accidental,” as the remote location significantly hampers migrants’ ability to connect with lawyers who could advocate for their rights and contest their detention.

“It raises concerns that they are being isolated to deny them legal access, allowing for detention without rights, and facilitating photo opportunities for the government,” explained lead counsel in the lawsuit, ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt, in an interview with NPR, alluding to photographs of restrained individuals being loaded onto and off military aircraft.

Some relatives of the migrants discovered their loved ones had been transferred to Guantánamo by seeing those images shared publicly by the Defense and Homeland Security departments. Numerous family members are named as plaintiffs in the case.

The lawsuit demands that, given the challenges lawyers face in reaching Guantánamo, “at a minimum,” attorneys should be allowed to communicate with the migrants via phone, video calls, or email.

Lee Gelernt, the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project Deputy Director, highlighted that even suspected foreign terrorists, who have been detained at Guantánamo for years, enjoy access to legal counsel. He stated, “This shows that these immigrant detainees are being held under conditions with fewer rights than those afforded to alleged enemy combatants.”

A spokesperson for the DHS, Tricia McLaughlin, stated to NPR that “there is a system in place for phone access to reach lawyers,” but offered no further information. The government has not disclosed the names of the migrants now in Guantánamo, and many of their family members report being unable to receive information despite repeated inquiries to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In her statement, McLaughlin also commented: “If the AMERICAN Civil Liberties Union prioritizes dangerous criminal aliens, including murderers and violent gang members, over American citizens, they should consider changing their name.”

Currently, the U.S. government has sent multiple flights of migrants to Guantánamo, totaling at least 50 individuals as per ACLU estimates. The government claims that at least some of these individuals are affiliated with the Venezuelan organized crime group Tren de Aragua, which the U.S. has designated as a transnational criminal organization. The Trump administration refers to the deported migrants as “high-threat illegal aliens” and aims to allocate space for 30,000 migrants at Guantánamo, a plan that is expected to encounter significant legal, financial, political, and logistical challenges.

The government asserts these migrants will be temporarily housed in Guantánamo until they can be relocated to other countries. Additionally, they indicated these individuals would stay in a detention facility historically used for migrants intercepted at sea, yet the majority of migrants sent to Guantánamo to date are being detained in a military prison previously used for foreign terror suspects like al-Qaida.

To prepare for a larger influx of migrants, several hundred members of the U.S. military have been deployed to Guantánamo, and over a hundred green Army tents have been set up in nearby fields.

The ACLU, Center for Constitutional Rights, International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), and ACLU of the District of Columbia filed this lawsuit on behalf of the family members of several detained migrants and four legal aid organizations seeking to meet with the detainees: Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, American Gateways, and Americans for Immigrant Justice.

These organizations resorted to legal action after the government failed to respond to a letter sent last week to the secretaries of Defense, State, and Homeland Security, requesting immediate access to the migrants.

“Secretively transferring individuals from the United States to Guantánamo without access to legal counsel or the outside world is not only illegal but constitutes a moral crisis for our nation,” said Deepa Alagesan, a senior supervising attorney at IRAP. “We will actively resist any efforts by the U.S. government to treat Guantánamo as a legal black box, denying immigrants their fundamental rights to legal representation and due process.”

Report contributed by NPR’s Ximena Bustillo.