Donald Trump’s inauguration Friday elated and enraged Americans, as both supporters and detractors looked ahead to the changes the Republican leader’s presidency will bring.
But for a small group of foreign detainees locked in the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the start of the Trump era has a different sort of meaning: a narrowly missed chance for freedom.
The five men – an Algerian, a Moroccan, a Tunisian, a Yemeni, and an apparently stateless detainee – were all certified by Obama administration officials as eligible for resettlement overseas. But they did not form part of a final flurry of transfer deals sealed by the departing Obama administration. Now, as Trump declares that no additional prisoners should leave Guantánamo, it appears their long detentions may continue for at least another four years.
Trump assumes responsibility for a much more sparsely populated Guantánamo than former President Obama did eight years ago. Following Obama’s resettlement of 196 prisoners overseas, only 41 inmates remain today, far fewer than the prison’s peak of over 700 under President George W. Bush.
But Obama failed to accomplish his primary goal of shuttering the facility, unable to overcome political opposition to congressionally sanctioned steps, and unwilling to resort to executive action to make such a controversial move.
Trump, in contrast, has suggested he might put new prisoners in Guantánamo, and possibly use the facility to try Americans. In line with his administration’s day-one promise to defeat “radical Islamic terror groups,” Trump, like Republicans in Congress, believes prisoner resettlement undermines American security.
Like nearly all remaining prisoners, none of the five men now expected to be marooned at Guantánamo has been convicted of a crime.
Two of the men, an Algerian named Sufyian Barhoumi and Moroccan Abdul Latif Nasir, now face indefinite detention after the defeat of an 11th-hour court action aimed at securing their release.
Many of the other detainees remaining at Guantánamo are expected to be held indefinitely without charges due to a lack of admissible evidence against them.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
