Dear Friends,

President Biden promised to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay and his party controls both the House and the Senate. What is needed now is public support to show Congress that the American people are on his side. Please write to your Members of Congress today and tell them that it is time to work with President Biden to close Guantanamo.

The Biden Administration has cleared five detainees to leave Guantanamo, in addition to six other detainees who were already cleared to leave when he took office. The first step toward closing Guantanamo is for the Administration to negotiate with foreign countries to receive these eleven detainees, and then to transfer them.  

Once most of the 40 detainees being held at Guantanamo are cleared and transferred to foreign countries, there will be a few remaining who are currently charged (or are likely to be charged) in the military commissions system. The military commissions system is broken beyond repair and will never be a solution to closing Guantanamo. Instead, some detainees will need to be tried in U.S. federal courts.  

For the past several years, Congress has acted to prevent Guantanamo from being closed by including language in the yearly National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that prevents detainees from being transferred to the U.S. Now, Congress can help President Biden close Guantanamo by one simple act - passing a clean NDAA that does not include the language barring transfers. That's all that has to happen for the Administration to be able bring detainees to the U.S. for trial.

Please write to your Members of Congress and tell them to pass a clean NDAA without any restrictions on transferring Guantanamo detainees to the U.S. for trial.

Thank you,

Matt Hawthorne
Policy Director