The president plans to present Congress with his plan on Tuesday to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, according to a news release from Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.).
In the news release, Roberts, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) said they oppose President Barack Obama's plan to shut down the detention facility and relocate the remaining detainees to the mainland United States.
“Congress passed a law in November explicitly barring the transfer of Guantanamo prisoners to domestic soil,” the senators said in the news release. “Military leaders have repeatedly said they will not break the law to close the facility and relocate its prisoners on the mainland, which would be yet another of the administration’s misguided national security decisions. With ever-growing threats abroad and our increased efforts to combat ISIS, we need a place to house these terrorists, and that place is not in our communities, nor back on the battlefield.”
The disciplinary barracks at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas could be a destination. Some Leavenworth residents have previously voiced their concerns over the possibility of relocating the detainees near them.
“This plan is expected to present the options for the relocation of Guantanamo, but regardless of whether it is Kansas, South Carolina, or Colorado, none of these options are acceptable. Our states and our communities remain opposed to moving the world’s deadliest terrorists to U.S. soil. The terrorists at Guantanamo Bay are where they should remain – at Guantanamo Bay,” the senators said in the news release.
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