The Trump administration sent a new group of 20 illegal migrants to Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba while they await deportation, The New York Times reported Thursday.
The migrants may have ties to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, according to the report.
The new batch of illegals will mark the only 20 migrants at Guantanamo after the administration transferred roughly 40 off the island to Louisiana last week ahead of a federal court hearing on the legality of detaining immigrants at an offshore military station.
In that case, Washington, D.C., District Court Judge Carl Nichols denied requests for temporary restraining orders, ruling the plaintiffs failed to show "irreparable" or "imminent" harm, in part because there are no detainees with orders of final removal currently detained at Gitmo.
It's unclear if any of the 20 that were sent Thursday were part of the group transferred to Louisiana. U.S. officials said last week that Guantanamo might still be used in the future to detain "high-threat" illegals.
President Donald Trump has said he will send the worst criminal migrants to Guantanamo Bay.
In one of the lawsuits mulled by Nichols last week, 10 illegals sued to block their possible transfer to the U.S. military facility in Cuba. Department of Justice lawyer Drew Ensign called the lawsuits the "weirdest prison conditions cases you've ever faced." It's unclear if any of the 10 plaintiffs in that case were sent Thursday.
In his ruling favoring the Trump administration, Nichols did note that "serious" questions remain as to whether the federal government can open detention centers on overseas military bases.
Nichols asked Ensign to inform him if any of the plaintiffs get transferred to Guantanamo, at which point the civil rights attorneys for the plaintiffs, both backed by the American Civil Liberties Union, could reapply for injunctive relief.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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