A coalition of elected officials on Thursday strongly denounced President Barack Obama’s plan to transfer detainees from the Guantanamo Bay prison camp to facilities on U.S. soil.
The coalition was made up of Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee’s Oversight and Management Efficiency Subcommittee Scott Perry (R-PA), South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley (R-SC), and officials from Kansas and Michigan. The group noted the dangers posed by bringing terrorist detainees to their states as reason for the resistance.
“The fact is, state and local law enforcement have numerous concerns with the implications of bringing the world’s most dangerous terrorists to our homeland,” Perry said. “Law enforcement officials have serious questions, which the administration’s plan either failed to consider or simply didn’t answer. Receiving input from states and local communities regarding these transfers is critical; that South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley made the trip to Washington today underscores that importance.”
Haley said that the move wouldn’t stop the constant propaganda used by terrorist recruiters and that thinking otherwise would give militants too much credibility.
“Terrorists do not need a jail to hate us,” Haley said. “They hate us all on their own.”