WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) today introduced a resolution formally rejecting President Obama’s plan to transfer prisoners from the Guantanamo Bay detention facilities to an alternate location in American communities, which is explicitly prohibited by law. The resolution is cosponsored by Sens. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), Jerry Moran (R-Kansas), and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.).

“The President has failed to find a suitable site in a U.S. community to relocate terrorists held at Guantanamo because there is no suitable site on our shores,” Roberts said. “Despite this failure and law prohibiting it, the president has said he will still transfer detainees by executive order. This resolution puts the Senate on record, again demonstrating to the president our clear opposition to this security risk. Perhaps something will deter him from an agenda in which the wishes and the security of the American people are last on the list.”

The resolution states that the Senate:

• Rejects the “Plan to Closing Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility” presented by the President on February 23, 2016, to transfer, release, or assist in the transfer or release of Guantanamo Bay detainees to the United States homeland, in contravention of current United States law that explicitly prohibits such transfers
• Finds that Guantanamo Bay detention facility is the optimal location to house dangerous foreign enemy combatants
• Asserts that any potential transfer or release of Guantanamo Bay detainees to the U.S. homeland represents a threat to United States national security due to the risk of providing law of war detainees with rights and protections under the United States Constitution, including the potential for release into the United States, and particularly, a threat to the safety and security of local communities in the States of Kansas, Colorado, and South Carolina; and
• Demands that the President immediately abandon any ill-conceived and illegal plans to transfer Guantanamo Bay detainees to the United States homeland without explicit authorization from the United States Congress.

The full text of the resolution is available here.

Roberts recorded a short video on the resolution, which can be viewed here. 

Sites in Kansas, South Carolina, and Colorado have been surveyed as potential replacements for Guantanamo. To view Roberts’ statement on the president’s plan submitted to Congress, click here.

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