President Barack Obama made his final attempt to shut down the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. The democrat president requested a 'fair hearing,' although the Republican lawmakers already introduced bills that contends his proposal.
Reuters reported that the Republicans strongly opposed Obama's legislation to transfer detainees to the United States. While there have been no reports about the specific location of the facilities, the president's plan suggests to hold 30 to 60 prisoners in 13 potential sites in the US.
The chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, Republican Representative Ed Royce, introduced a legislation that would force the White House and President Obama's administration to publicize the proposal for transfers from Guantanamo. According to Yahoo News, Obama must inform the Congress for any transfers, but currently, the notices are still classified. Noticing the public of plans to transfer prisoners would allow opponents more time to mobilize opposition and potentially stop any attempt of transfer.
Royce said in a statement that "the legislation will bring much-needed scrutiny to Obama's mad rush to transfer detainees out of Guantanamo Bay before Obama exits the office."
The plan involves transferring numbers of the remaining detainees to other countries and moving the rest, whom reports say cannot be transferred abroad because they are deemed too dangerous. Obama says the facilities which hold suspected members of terrorist groups captured overseas is a recruiting tool for terrorists and is too expensive to maintain, as CNN reported.
Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Richard Burr, said the president's aggressive push to shut down the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay is dangerous. The senator then pointed out that it is important that the congress makes clear that Obama cannot give up US base in such a strategic location.
Republican lawmakers like Senator Tom Cotton, Kelly Ayotte, and 2016 presidential candidate Marco Rubio introduced such bill late on Monday that would block Obama from returning the naval base at Guantanamo to Cuba without permission from Congress. Meanwhile, House Republican Representative David Jolly also filed a similar legislation.
