A group of GOP lawmakers wants President Trump to transfer more than 700 “battle-hardened terrorists” detained by the Syrian Democratic Forces to the military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, a move that comes as the U.S. looks to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria.
In a letter to Trump on Tuesday, Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Marco Rubio of Florida, John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, both of Texas, urged Trump to move the prisoners to the detention facility in Cuba where they can face justice.
“Given the rapidly shifting dynamics in Syria, it is possible that these terrorists may escape or be released from SDF custody in the coming weeks and months,” the lawmakers wrote. “It is imperative that these Islamic State fighters not be released. If given the opportunity, many of them will take up arms against our Syrian and Iraqi partners or attempt to infiltrate the United States and Europe to carry out terror attacks against civilian targets, like they have already done in France and Belgium.”
“We urge you to consider transferring the worst of these Islamic State fighters to the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, where they will face justice,” they wrote.
The U.S. hasn’t transferred any new detainees to the detention facility — which currently houses 40 detainees — in more than 10 years. Doing so would require the U.S. to prove that the detainee in question is affiliated with a force that the U.S. is in armed conflict with.
Although former President Barack Obama signed an executive order in 2009 to close the facility, Trump signed his own executive order to keep the facility open in 2017.
Both administrations have argued that ISIS is covered by the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists, which permits the president to use military force against those responsible for the 9/11 attacks.
But experts have noted that such an interpretation of the law has not been challenged in court. As a result, an ISIS prisoner moved to Guantanamo would “likely” file a “habeas petition in federal court to challenge the scope of the government’s detention authority,” according to Charles Stimson and Hugh Danilack, who co-authored a Heritage Foundation report on the matter.
“If the Trump Administration rushes to bring ISIS fighters to Guantanamo without a stronger legal basis, those detainees might successfully challenge not only their own detention under the AUMF, but also the Trump Administration’s entire legal justification for the authority to use all necessary and appropriate force in the fight against ISIS,” they wrote in the 2017 report.
Trump claimed last month that ISIS had been destroyed and said the U.S. would begin to pull out the approximately 2,000 U.S. troops from Syria. Since then, several Americans were killed in a suicide bombing in Syria. ISIS claimed responsibility.
In response, Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he was worried Trump’s rhetoric about withdrawing troops from Syria had inspired ISIS and he urged Trump “ look long and hard at what we’re doing in Syria.”
