US deports immigrants to Venezuela after judge blocked transfer to Guantanamo Bay

EL PASO, Texas (AP) — Three immigrants who won a restraining order against the federal government to avoid transfer to the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba were deported this week on direct flights to Venezuela, according to court documents published Friday.

The three men were deported Monday, the day after a federal judge approved a temporary order blocking a possible transfer to Guantanamo Bay.

Venezuelan immigrants are being flown on a daily basis from a military base at El Paso, Texas, to Guantanamo as part of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Lawyers for the deported men said they were the target of false accusations of gang affiliation by the U.S. government that may expose them to harm.

“The government’s baseless accusations in this case that two of the (immigrants) are affiliated with the infamous Tren de Aragua gang raises grave concerns about risks to their lives and freedom upon their return to Venezuela,” attorney Jessica Myers Vosburgh of the Center for Constitutional Rights told a federal judge.

Immigrant rights groups have filed a separate lawsuit demanding access to people who have been sent Guantanamo Bay without access to legal counsel or communication with relatives.

Millions of desperate people have fled Venezuela amid a severe economic and political crisis under President Nicolás Maduro, migrating to other parts of Latin America or the U.S.

The Tren de Aragua gang originated in a lawless prison in the central Venezuelan state of Aragua more than a decade ago