NEW YORK – In response to disturbing reports of mistreatment of the first groups of migrant detainees held in Guantánamo Bay, T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights denounced President Trump’s plans to move upwards of 30,000 non-citizens to the island. The organization, which has a membership of over 2,300 rabbis and cantors, warned that this move is both cruel and threatens to violate U.S. law.
Rabbi Jill Jacobs, CEO of T’ruah, said:
“We are extremely troubled by the administration’s decision to transfer migrants from U.S. soil to Guantánamo Bay. This is the latest in a string of cruel decisions designed to scapegoat migrants and to place them out of view, where there will be little to no accountability regarding their conditions or the fulfillment of their legal rights, including access to counsel and due process. Indeed, several Venezuelan men held in Guantánamo in February have reported mistreatment, including being denied access to lawyers and experiencing physical abuse from guards.
“Non-citizens facing removal proceedings have the right to counsel, and are protected by the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process clause. Moving immigrants detained on U.S. soil to Guantánamo does not negate these rights, but does make it more difficult to ensure access to legal counsel and to due process. Rights groups have already filed suit to demand the detainees be given access to lawyers, noting that the administration is currently ‘holding them incommunicado, without access to attorneys, family, or the outside world.’ The Trump administration claims that the non-citizens transferred to Guantánamo have committed crimes while in the United States. If this is the case, U.S. criminal law has the tools to prosecute crimes while providing for the rights of the accused.
“Trump’s choice of Guantánamo is no coincidence. The base is best known as a site of long-term detention and despicable acts of abuse and torture, where the George W. Bush administration imprisoned men arrested during the war on terror. In fact, T’ruah’s first North American campaign aimed to stop torture in Guantánamo Bay. While some of these men carried out despicable acts, most never faced formal charges. Avoiding bringing them into the United States allowed the government to circumvent the ordinary criminal justice system. Nearly a quarter of a century later, 15 detainees remain at Guantánamo, only nine of whom have been charged or convicted of war crimes. While migrants will be held in a different area of the naval base than those arrested during the war on terror, placing them at Guantánamo contributes to a dangerous narrative that criminalizes migration and validates the dehumanization of immigrant neighbors and families.
“As American Jews, we understand the importance of immigration and asylum policies that allow those fleeing violence, persecution, and poverty to seek safety for themselves and their families in the United States. Many of our own families are here today only thanks to U.S. policies that allowed for immigration before 1924 and after the Holocaust, and many of our family members perished while the border was closed to them. Our tradition reminds us that our experience of being gerim (strangers/immigrants) in the land of Egypt imposes on us the obligation to treat gerim in our own lands with dignity and justice.
“We cannot stand idly by as human beings, many of whom are fleeing violence and persecution, are subjected to this inhumane treatment. Rabbis and cantors are ready to stand up to this abuse of power and to stand in solidarity with immigrants.”
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About T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights
T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights brings the Torah’s ideals of human dignity, equality, and justice to life by empowering our network of over 2,300 rabbis and cantors to be moral voices and to lead Jewish communities in advancing democracy and human rights for all people in the United States, Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territories.