Senate Democrats on Wednesday pressed for the closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention center, saying the U.S. military facility in Cuba is an embarrassment, a liability and a costly drag on the federal government.

At a Senate Judiciary Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights Subcommittee hearing, Chairman Richard Durbin, D-Ill., argued that the existence of the prison, which has held hundreds of terrorist suspects since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S., “weakens our alliances, inspires our enemies and calls into question our commitment to human rights.”