While Michelle Malkin writes the Senate’s passage of the Homeland Security authorization brings us ‘One step closer to bringing Gitmo circus to U.S. soil,’ the two primary effects are these:
The language they used, i.e. for “prosecution” or “legal proceedings,” is an unfunny joke. With litigation pending on every detainee, the latter provides the administration a loophole to bring those they have no intention of prosecuting into the U.S., without having to call it indefinite detention.
The bill deletes the requirement for the DHS to conduct a threat assessment of each detainee prior to their being brought into the U.S. Should the Supreme Court decide against the pending appeal made by the DOJ of the lower court’s decision concerning the Uighurs, we will come full circle back to the Real ID Act. Will the administration then state they may not immigrate because either they trained in terrorism or are associated with a terrorist organization? More likely, President Barack Obama will punt another national security decision to the judiciary branch by allowing known terrorists to immigrate to the U.S. under the guise of “rule of law” and “our core values.”
Update: Perhaps some are not seeing the significance of “legal proceedings.” President Obama has no intention of keeping the detention facilities at Guantanamo open one day longer than necessary. In line with Boumediene v Bush, federal judges are already adjudicating whether Gitmo’s detainees can lawfully be detained and ordered a number of them released (with few nations taking them). Beyond the current litigation, their lawyers have hundreds of briefs waiting to file as soon as the detainees arrive on U.S. soil on all those not prosecuted; the ACLU is salivating at the thought of getting their clients into immigration court.
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