Keep Terrorists Out of America Act Details
Here are a few details about the House GOP’s Keep Terrorists Out of America Act:
The Keep Terrorists Out of America Act gives Members of Congress an opportunity to stand with the American people by affirming their opposition to releasing the terrorists at Guantanamo prison or bringing them into the United States. It also makes clear that governors and state legislatures must pre-approve the transfer or release of any terrorist detainee into their respective states. And lastly it requires the President to meet strict criteria and certification standards before terrorists housed at the Guantanamo prison could be brought to the United States. Following is a summary of the bill:
Affirming Congress’ Opposition to the Release and Transfer of Terrorists. The bill affirms Congress’ opposition to transferring or releasing terrorists held at the Guantanamo Bay prison into the United States. Most Americans do not support releasing these terrorists from Guantanamo Bay prison and transferring them into the United States. The bill gives Congress an opportunity to show that it stands with the American people on this critical matter, and opposes the release and transfer of these terrorists.
Governor & State Legislature Pre-Approval. The measure prohibits the Administration from transferring or releasing any terrorist detainees at Guantanamo Bay to any state without express approval from the state’s governor and legislature, and certifies to Congress that strict requirements have been met. For example, the Administration must certify to the respective governor and state legislature that the detainee does not pose a security risk to the United States. The certifications must be made 60 days before any transfer or release.
Presidential Certification Requirements. The measure prohibits the President from transferring or releasing a terrorist detainee into the United States unless he provides the following notification and certification to Congress regarding:
- The name of the detainee and transfer/release location in the United States.
- The release/transfer would not negatively impact continued prosecution of the detainee.
- The release/transfer would not negatively impact continued detention of the detainee.
- The ability of federal judges to release detainees into the United States.
President Obama made certain that his signing the executive order shutting Gitmo got lots of publicity. Now that it’s time to put something together, though, the Obama administration is scrambling to put a coherent plan together. Rep. David Obey, usally a liberal ally of this administration, has refused to appropriate the money needed to shut Gitmo because this administration doesn’t have a plan for shutting it down:
“I personally favor what the administration’s talking about doing, but so far as we can tell there is yet no concrete program for that,” Obey said ahead of his panel’s markup of the $94.2 billion supplemental Thursday. “And while I don’t mind defending a concrete program, I’m not much interested in wasting my energy defending a theoretical program.”
To put it mildly, this administration’s national security policies are in disarray. It isn’t difficult to prove that they’re irresponsible or nonexistent, either. The House GOP’s legislation would codify the conditions that must be met before Gitmo is emptied out.
We have laws on the books in every state in the union that says government must notify communities if a sex predator is released into a neighborhood. Should there not be something in place that mandates the notification of cities if a terrorist is released?
It’s another story whether this bill gets a hearing, though, because debating this legislation would be a major embarassment to Pelosi’s Democrats and to the Obama administration.
This wouldn’t have happened if President Obama hadn’t grandstanded on the issue or if he’d actually thought things through before issuing the executive order.
Technorati Tags: Terrorism, Nancy Pelosi, Gitmo, President Obama, Executive Orders, Homeland Security
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog
May 8th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
This is especially concerning because terrorists have super powers that enables them to break out of prison and take away our freedoms. Gitmo was able to contain their terrorist abilities, but American prison are only able to handle murderers, rapists, and drug users. Bringing terrorists into our prisons will be dangerous and can only result in horror.
But in the case that a terrorist is released (even though he is 100% guilty of committing future acts of terrorism), he will automatically become a US citizen because that’s how immigration laws work.
May 8th, 2009 at 9:31 pm
It was okay to pontificate about their darling infidels at Gitmo in 2008 but now reality is catching up to Obama and Pelosi. On the one hand they want to please the Daily Kos kids, but then there’s 2010. Oh, this is fun.