Washington, October 16: The US House of Representatives has voted to allow the transfer of Guantanamo Bay detainees to US soil, but only to face trial.
On Thursday, the House voted 307-114 in favor of the measure included in the bill for the Homeland Security Department’s budget. The vote removes an obstacle to President Barack Obama’s plans for closing the controversial prison facility in Cuba.
The legislation still must be passed by the Senate, before Obama can sign it into law.
Obama has set a deadline of January 22 for shutting down Guantanamo but is still facing key questions about what to do with the roughly 220 prisoners remaining there. He has not ruled out the possibility of relocating some of them to federal prisons.
Congressional Republicans and a large number of Democrats, however, protested at the idea of holding the detainees in the United States indefinitely, arguing that it would pose a threat to the nation’s security.
—–Agencies