COLUMBIA, SC – President Obama has announced plans to close Guantanamo Bay.
He says the detention facility at Guantanamo undermines national security and US values.
SC Gov. Nikki Haley released the following statement on Facebook Tuesday afternoon.
“President Obama is ignoring the dangerous reality that the terrorist threat to our nation is growing every day and doubling down on closing Guantanamo Bay. But we have made our stance very clear: we will fight any attempt to bring terrorists into our states. This is no time to send terrorists back to the battlefield.”
Obama says the detention center is counterproductive in the fight against terrorism because it’s used as propaganda to recruit terrorists and drains military resources.
The White House released Obama’s plan to close the facility, but the plan faces stiff opposition from the GOP-led Congress.
The plan calls for transferring remaining detainees to the United States and seeks up to $475 million in construction costs that would ultimately be offset by as much as $180 million per year in operating cost savings.
It does not specify where in the U.S. the detainees would go.
Associated Press contributed to this article.
