Multiple sources indicate that a federal judge recently blocked the transfer of Venezuelan immigrants with final deportation orders to Guantanamo Bay. This decision came after legal challenges arguing against the legality of such transfers and concerns about limited access to legal representation for detainees at Guantanamo.Nearly 180 people are being held in tents and high-security facilities at the U.S. naval station in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where immigration and military officials claim they are only detaining Venezuelan immigrants who are subject to final deportation orders, according to court documents released Thursday. This is the most detailed official explanation to date of who is being kept inside the isolated military base and why, according to a court filing by U.S. Justice Department prosecutors.President Donald Trump in January said he wanted to expand immigrant detention facilities at Guantanamo to hold as many as 30,000 people, although current capacity at Guantanamo's low-security migrant operations center is roughly 2,500.

The naval base is best known for housing suspects taken in after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, but it also has been used for holding people caught trying to illegally reach the U.S. by boat and to coordinate the resettlement of immigrants in the U.S.Near-daily flights from a U.S. Army outpost in West Texas to Guantanamo were started by authorities on February 4. 127 of the recently arrived immigrants are being detained in a high-security location, and 51 are being housed in low-security tent facilities. In its court brief on Thursday, the Departments of Homeland Security and Defense contended that the detainees have "very limited due process rights" because they are all subject to final orders of removal to Venezuela, which denies them the access to legal representation.Relatives of the new Guantanamo detainees and advocacy groups have accused the U.S. government of holding immigrants in a legal “black box" amid unsubstantiated or disputed accusations of criminal ties. U.S. authorities have not publicly confirmed the individual identities of immigrants recently transported to Guantanamo Bay.A lawsuit on behalf of three immigrants detained at Guantanamo seeks a court order for authorities to provide unmonitored telephone and in-person access to legal counsel and advance notice before immigrants are transferred to Guantanamo or removed to other countries.

A U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., has ordered authorities to provide phone access to legal counsel, and authorities at Guantanamo said in Thursday's court filing that they have complied, while pushing back against in-person access to legal counsel, as well as the right to communicate with relatives.The Departments of Homeland Security and Defense “are not presently offering the opportunity for in-person visits to immigration detainees at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay but will continue to evaluate whether to extend this option in light of significant logistical challenges, the availability of alternative means of counsel communication, and the anticipated short duration of immigration detainee stays.”

The court filing notes that “Venezuela has historically resisted accepting repatriation of its citizens but has recently begun accepting removals following high-level political discussions and an investment of significant resources.”

Trump in January signaled that some migrants could be held indefinitely at Guantanamo.

“Some of them are so bad that we don’t even trust the countries to hold them because we don’t want them coming back, so we’re gonna send ’em out to Guantanamo,” Trump said.