Scott on White House Gitmo Plan: Reckless and Illegal

Washington-U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) issued the following statementafterthe Obama administrationpresented Congress with a plan to move terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay to a location on domestic soil.

“The law could not be any clearer: President Obama does not have the authority to move dozens of dangerous terrorists from the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to American communities. Instead of trying to empty out Gitmo and moving dozens of dangerous terrorists to South Carolina, Kansas or Colorado, the President needs to put our national security interests first. It is beyond time he abandon this reckless campaign promise, as even his own Defense Secretary and Attorney General, along withmilitary leaders, have concluded his course of action is illegal.

The fiscal argument the White House is trying to make is a shallow one, and pretending like moving Guantanamo to a new location is going to take away a propagandapointfor groups like ISIS is simplydisingenuous.There is simply no reason to put a target on an American community, when we already have an isolated facility, well-guarded by Marines that is more than capable of holding them.

I want to thank my colleagues, especially Senators Pat Roberts (R-KS) and Cory Gardner (R-CO), for their work to help stop the President’s dangerous plan-because we know there is no plan or study that shows closing Guantanamo Bay and moving these terrorists to domestic locations will make America safer.Iwill use every tool at my disposal to prevent this reckless, illegal plan from moving forward.”

Senators 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.