Durbin, Senate Judiciary, Approps Democratic Leaders Denounce President Trump's Unlawful Transfer Of Immigrants To Guantánamo
WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, led Democratic leaders of the Senate Judiciary and Appropriations Committees in a letter to President Trump denouncing his transfer of immigrants from the United States to Guantánamo as unlawful and asking for answers to basic questions yet to be provided to Congress.
The Senators begin by denouncing the transfers, writing: “We write to object to your illegal and unjustified transfers of immigrants from the United States to the detention center at Naval Station Guantánamo Bay, which follows your directive to the Secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security to prepare the base to hold tens of thousands of noncitizens. These actions are unprecedented, unlawful, and harmful to American national security, values, and interests. The United States has never sent anyone from the United States to be detained at Guantánamo before now.”
The Senators continue by outlining the unlawful and unjustified nature of the directive, writing: “There is no basis in U.S. immigration law for transferring noncitizens arrested inside the United States to a location outside of the United States for detention prior to or for the purposes of conducting removal proceedings. Noncitizens inside the United States are entitled to numerous protections under U.S. immigration law and the U.S. Constitution. For example, removal processes under our immigration laws afford noncitizens due process and an opportunity to seek protection from removal to a place where they could face persecution or torture. These rights cannot be extinguished by transfer to a location outside the United States. Simply put, if the processes for obtaining a lawful removal order have not been followed, the forcible removal of a noncitizen to Guantánamo violates U.S. immigration law.”
The Senators continue by refuting a false DHS statement to the Committee that suggests immigrants with final orders of removal do not need access to counsel, writing: “In addition, individuals in civil immigration detention have a right to access counsel under ICE detention standards, and immigration laws governing removal proceedings. Impeding access to counsel for detained immigrants also may violate the Constitution in some circumstances. In addition, individuals in immigration detention may have appeal or other review rights and cannot be held indefinitely, and the only effective means by which a detained individual could assert these rights would be through access to counsel.”
The Senators also refute the Trump Administration’s false claim that only high-risk immigrants are detained, writing: “While no noncitizen should be sent from the United States to Guantánamo, it also appears that your Administration’s claims that it was sending ‘worst of the worst’ there are misleading. Public reporting indicates that noncitizens who DHS deemed low risk were sent to Guantánamo. In response to inquiries from Judiciary Committee staff, your Administration has even left open the possibility that families, including children, will be detained at Guantánamo, stating that future decisions regarding detention would be made on a ‘case-by-case basis.’”
The Senators conclude with a striking portrayal of the practical ramifications of this decision before issuing a series of information requests, writing: “Your efforts to house or detain noncitizens forcibly removed from the United States at the MOC and the Camp 6 law of war detention facilities at Guantánamo are cruel, unlawful, and unprecedented. Such hasty and unlawful actions will cause harms to the United States for years to come. As those familiar with the long history of operations at Guantánamo can tell you, detaining individuals there is not a quick fix. Congress has not appropriated funds for such purposes for good reason. Given the isolated location of the base, its controversial history, and the lack of legal authority to detain noncitizens there, continuing down this path will invite more litigation, drain resources, place undue strain on our servicemembers, diminish military readiness, undermine support from our allies, and harm our standing in the world.”
In addition to Durbin, the letter is signed by: U.S. Senators Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee; Alex Padilla (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Border Security and Immigration; Chris Murphy (D-CT), Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security; and Peter Welch (D-VT), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution.
For a PDF of the full letter to President Trump, click here.
Durbin has been a vocal advocate for shuttering the detention center at Guantánamo Bay. After holding the Committee’s first hearing on the need to close Guantánamo in 2013, Durbin held another hearing in 2021, where he reiterated his frequent calls to close the detention facilities. Durbin emphasized that keeping the detention center open undermines America’s moral standing and credibility around the world and wastes taxpayer dollars.
In April 2021, Durbin led a group of 23 Senators in a letter to President Biden expressing support for finally closing the detention facility, which he again pressed the President to do in another letter with a group of Senators in February 2024.
Alongside his efforts to close the Guantánamo detention facility, Durbin has called for justice for the victims of 9/11 and their loved ones. Durbin called on the government to secure guilty pleas from the defendants following years of delays in the military commission case against the accused September 11 plotters and applauded the plea deal that prosecutors ultimately secured in the case. After then-Defense Secretary Austin tried to revoke the guilty pleas just days after they were announced, Durbin urged the Secretary to reconsider on his decision in August and December 2024.
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