WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Kansas Governor Sam Brownback and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley aim to block US President Barack Obama’s efforts to move detainees from the prison facility at Guantanamo Bay to their respective states, Brownback’s office announced in a press release.
Brownback and Haley will not take part in any "illegal and ill-advised action by the [Obama] Administration, especially when that action relates to importing terrorists into our states," the release said on Tuesday.
The US Defense Department recently sent teams to assess the possibility of moving detainees to US military barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas and the US Naval Brig in South Carolina, the release added.
"To even discuss bringing these terrorists to the United States is an insult to those who perished in the September 11 attacks and those who have served in America’s war on terror," the release added.
Since taking office in 2009, Obama released or transferred more than half of the prisoners at the Guantanamo facility. However, 116 detainees remain at the detention facility, the White House said.
In the course of the renewed diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba, the detention center and US Naval base at Guantanamo Bay has been a contentious issue.
In recent months, the Cuban government has repeatedly called on Washington to close the prison facility and transfer the territory.
