Senator: Keep Guantanamo Bay open

By , Robert King

Published June 11, 2016

A key senator pushed for legislation that blocks President Obama from moving Guantanamo Bay detainees to the U.S. and wants to keep the detention facility open.

"These detainees aren't in Gitmo for parking tickets; they're there because they want to kill Americans and hate everything that we stand for," said Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, in the weekly GOP address.

Lee was pushing for approval of the National Defense Authorization Act, which funds the military. Included in the legislation, which the Senate will vote on next week, is a measure to block Obama from moving detainees to the U.S.

Lee said he visited the detention center in the spring and noted that closing it means the "Obama administration will accelerate the release or transfer of its prisoners to the United States or abroad. This is simply reckless when the Middle East is growing increasingly unstable."