Human rights groups have accused U.S. authorities of using Guantánamo Bay for decades to detain migrants fleeing Haiti, Cuba and other Caribbean nations.

Civil rights attorneys sued the Trump administration Saturday to prevent it from transferring 10 migrants detained in the U.S. to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and filed statements from men held there who said they were mistreated there in conditions that of one of them called ''a living hell.

The lawsuit says there is no legitimate reason to send migrants to Guantánamo because the U.S. has ample detention facility.

The new case, which for now is asking for a court to block the transfer of 10 men to the offshore base, is the first to directly challenge the policy.

On Feb. 7, he and other Venezuelan men in ICE detention in El Paso were awakened and told they were going back to Venezuela, Purroy Roldan said. They were transported to Miami and put aboard a military plane – and realized they were actually going to Guantanamo.

Civil rights attorneys are suing the Trump administration to prevent it from transferring 10 migrants detained in the U.S. to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba