President Donald Trump listens as Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, Monday, March 24, 2025 (Pool via AP).
The U.S. Department of Justice has asked a federal court to bar the public from an upcoming hearing about the Trump administration's disputed deportation facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
In a terse, three-page status report filed Wednesday, the DOJ lodged several requests with U.S. District Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan, a Joe Biden appointee, regarding a summary judgment hearing that was scheduled over the summer. The hearing is slated to occur on Oct. 14.
"Defendants request that the hearing transcript be filed under seal pending the parties' review for privilege and/[or] confidentiality," the motion reads. "Given that the hearing likely will involve discussion of sensitive, and potentially classified information, the Government respectfully requests that the hearing be closed to the public to protect the confidentiality of that information."
The bid for all-out secrecy concludes the series of requests. The government also asked the judge if the State Department could "be relieved of the obligation to produce a witness" for the hearing.
In a series of minute orders issued in August and September, the judge originally scheduled and outlined how the hearing would unfold.
Sooknanan directed the government to make available "agency representatives" as witnesses who are "fully versed in the entire administrative record" and who are prepared to "provide additional explanations of both the contours of the [Guantanamo Bay] policy and the contemporaneous reasons for the agencies' decision-making."
To that end, the government identified the following potential witnesses:
1. John Schultz, Acting Assistant Director, Removal Division, Enforcement and Removal Operations, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Department of Homeland Security.2. Barry Coble, Senior Advisor on Counterterrorism Policy, DASW IWCT, ASW SO/LIC, OUSW(P) Department of War.3. John Rouse, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, Department of State.
But, the government argued, Rouse and the State Department "played no role in the government's decisionmaking as it pertains to immigration detention" at the Migrant Operations Center in Cuba.
"Nor has the Department of State produced any of the decisional or policy materials reflected in the Certified Administrative Record," the motion goes on. "With respect to aliens detained at [Guantanamo Bay], the Department of State, at most, engaged in normal diplomatic communications with countries to which the government hoped to remove some of the [Guantanamo Bay] detainees."
The motion goes on to say that if the State Department is required to produce a witness, the government reserves the option "to assert all applicable privileges, including the state secrets privilege to any questions seeking the disclosure of communications between the United States and a foreign government."
Sooknanan had yet to rule on the government's request as of Thursday.
In the underlying case, immigrants brought a class action lawsuit challenging their detention at the controversial naval base.
On Jan. 29, 2025, President Donald Trump issued a memorandum directing relevant agencies "to take all appropriate actions to expand the Migrant Operations Center at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to full capacity and to provide additional detention space for high-priority criminal aliens unlawfully present in the United States."
By Feb. 4, 2025, the first group of immigrants had been transferred to Guantanamo out of Fort Bliss, a military base in El Paso, Texas.
In June 2025, the plaintiffs filed a 22-page class action lawsuit alleging the "never before used" Guantanamo detention regime lacked statutory authority, in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), and seeking a writ of habeas corpus.
The plaintiffs, a group led by Yamil Luna Gutierrez, said the Trump administration failed to articulate "any legitimate reason" to hold immigrants at Guantanamo due to the "ample detention capacity" within the United States. None of the government's reasons for holding immigrants at Guantanamo held up to scrutiny, the lawsuit argues.
"In attempting to justify the transfers, the government has claimed that the individuals it is sending to Guantánamo are members of gangs and dangerous criminals—the 'worst of the worst,'" the lawsuit reads. "That characterization has been proven wrong. Regardless, it is legally irrelevant because the government lacks statutory authority."
In December 2025, Sooknanan rejected the government's motion to dismiss, calling the novel detention program "pretextual."
The judge further criticized Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for sending "low-risk" immigrants "with no criminal record other than an immigration violation" to Guantanamo, despite the agency asserting the base would be used for "the worst of the worst" and "'high-threat' criminals."