In the United States, a federal judge in New Mexico stated on Sunday (February 10) that he would approve a preliminary injunction to prevent the U.S. government from potentially sending three Venezuelan men detained in the state to the Guantanamo Bay military base in Cuba.
The lawyer for the three men, Baher Azmy, said that Federal District Court Judge Kenneth Gonzales in New Mexico expressed during a video conference hearing that he would approve this order. As of Sunday evening, no court documents confirming Gonzales’s action had been received.
Azmy, a lawyer for the Center for Constitutional Rights, stated earlier on Sunday in a written statement that the three individuals had filed a motion to prevent their transfer to the Guantanamo base, despite no order currently being issued to send them to the base.
The federal court in New Mexico is handling a lawsuit involving these three individuals, who claim they have been unlawfully detained for an extended period after fleeing Venezuela to seek protection in the United States.
Previously, U.S. President Donald Trump announced at the end of January that his government plans to construct facilities at a U.S. naval base capable of accommodating up to 30,000 illegal immigrants. The base has a highly secure standalone prison specifically used to detain foreign terrorist suspects.
The Trump administration took action last week to lift deportation protections for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans in the U.S.
In a written statement released earlier on Sunday by the Center for Constitutional Rights, one of the detainees, Abraham Barrios Morales, expressed, “I am afraid of being taken to Guantanamo because the news portrays it as a black hole… I have also seen that human rights are continuously violated in Guantanamo, so I am concerned about what might happen to me if I am taken there.”
The American Civil Liberties Union questioned last Friday whether these detention actions may violate U.S. and international laws, stating that the Trump administration has not provided any information regarding these immigrants.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) previously stated that the first group of around 10 illegal immigrants sent to Guantanamo were alleged members of the notorious Venezuelan gang “Tren de Aragua,” but did not provide specific details about criminal charges or convictions.
(This article was referenced from Reuters reports)