Guantanamo Bay detainees brought into this country for trial will not stay here after the U.S. legal system finishes with them, the Obama administration says.
A detainee tried in this country would be treated for immigration purposes as though he is at a U.S. border trying to get in, and he will not get in, Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a Dec. 11 letter to Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The letter was obtained by The Associated Press on Monday.
Republican senators responded that the administration cannot make such promises because U.S. courts might intervene.
The Obama administration has announced that five detainees now held at the U.S. military prison at the naval base in Cuba will be tried in a New York federal court, and more are likely to be tried in the United States.
It also is acquiring a prison in Illinois to house some detainees. Military tribunals for detainees would be held there, and it could house some detainees whom the president determines must be held indefinitely but cannot be tried, according to administration officials.
