The Pentagon has notified Congress that it plans to transfer 17 detainees out of Guantanamo Bay in the coming weeks as the president races to close the military prison before he leaves office in 2017.
The proposed move of prisoners could reduce the population there to 90 by early 2016 and would involve the largest number of transfers in a single month since 2007, according to the New York Times, which first reported the planned exodus.
The administration has transferred 20 detainees so far in 2015, according to data compiled by the New York Times.
The president is struggling to make good on a campaign promise to close the military prison in Cuba due to resistance from a Congress that has tightened restrictions on where he can transfer detainees and has prohibited any prisoners from being transferred to the U.S.
At the same time, the administration is trying to negotiate security agreements with countries to take in those prisoners who have been cleared for transfer; it is also working on a plan to house those detainees who can’t be released in the U.S.
In the fiscal 2016 defense policy act, Congress requested a plan from the administration, complete with cost estimates, by February.
Teams from the Pentagon visited prisons in South Carolina, Kansas and Colorado this year to evaluate the costs of transferring prisoners to the U.S., but the administration has faced pushback from lawmakers who don’t want suspected terrorists in their home states.
