Senators Scott, Roberts & Gardner Statement on Administration’s Plan to Close Guantanamo Bay

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senators Tim Scott (R-S.C.),Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), and Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) today responded to reports that the administration will present Congress tomorrow with a plan to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and relocate the remaining terrorists held there to a location on the mainland United States.

“Congress passed a law in November explicitly barring the transfer of Guantanamo prisoners to domestic soil,” the senators said. “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.”

“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.”

Sens. Scott,Roberts, and Gardner have been outspoken opponents of President Obama’s intentions to close Guantanamo Bay. They have stated concerns with the 30 percent recidivism rate among released detainees, the hundreds of millions of dollars it will cost to construct a new facility, and the fact that opening domestic facility would place a bullseye for acts of terror on an American community. Sites in South Carolina, Kansas, and Colorado have been surveyed as potential replacements for Guantanamo.