The administration’s plan to close Guantanamo Bay, which was released Tuesday, includes a series of engagements with Congress to change laws that currently prevent moving detainees to the continental U.S.
But early indications suggest that Republicans in Congress are unlikely to approve of the plan, which they say threatens U.S. security.
The long-awaited plan required by the National Defense Authorization Act will mostly continue processes already in place, including transferring cleared detainees to other countries, periodically holding boards that review whether a detainee should be eligible for release and identifying individuals who could be prosecuted, senior administration officials said on Tuesday morning ahead of the plan’s release.
The administration will also work with Congress to move those detainees who can’t be released to a location in the United States, which is currently prohibited by law.
Pentagon officials conducted a series of site surveys at state prisons, federal prisons and Defense Department detention facilities last year in Colorado, Kansas and South Carolina to help compile cost estimates to include in the plan to Congress.
The plan sent to Congress on Tuesday references 13 facilities, including some not visited by officials, but does not endorse a specific one. Instead, it “describes a prototype facility in the U.S.” based on findings during the site surveys, a senior administration official said.
The official said holding Gitmo detainees at a facility in the U.S. would be about $65-85 million cheaper and that the U.S. would recoup one-time transition costs in about three to five years.
The Associated Press reported that the U.S. facilities will cost $265 million to $305 million per year to operate, compared to $445 million to run Gitmo. Construction at various U.S. sites will cost $290 million to $475 million, with the more expensive estimates happening on military installations.
The official said the estimates are rough and that Congress has prevented work that would allow for more precise numbers.
Of the 91 detainees being housed at Gitmo, 35 are eligible for transfer. The senior administration official said he was “optimistic” more would be transferred “in the next several months” to bring the population below 60.
The president has made closing the detention center at Guantanamo Bay a key goal of his presidency and is moving to close it before he leaves office in less than a year. The official declined to give a timeline to close the prison, saying that it depends on which site is selected and how willing Congress is to work with the administration.
“Guantanamo is a symbol, it’s a negative symbol for our national security,” the official said. “It inspires jihadists and it’s time to bring this chapter of American history to a close.”
Current law prohibits the administration from bringing any detainees to the U.S. for any reason or spending any money on construction to house Gitmo prisoners in the U.S.
A second senior administration official said the focus of this plan is on working with Congress, not on taking an executive action to unilaterally close the prison.
“The hope is that a series of engagements around the presentation of this plan will help move the conversation forward,” the official said. “We’re not entirely clear on how that conversation will play out, but we’re committed to moving it forward.”
Reception of the plan on Capitol Hill has so far been cool among the Republicans who oppose closing the prison.
“Bringing enemy combatants into the U.S. is reckless and will only embolden the enemies of freedom who wish to do us harm,” Rep. David Jolly, R-Fla., said in a statement on Tuesday. “The president should focus on defeating terrorists, not accommodating them.”
Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., and a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, also said that closing the detention facility will put Americans in danger.
“While the administration asserts that transferring detainees and closing Guantanamo is in America’s national security interests, they refuse to level with the American people regarding the terrorist activities and affiliations of the detainees who remain at Guantanamo,” she said.
