Republicans in the House of Representatives are preparing legal action in case President Barack Obama tries to transfer detainees at the military prison at Guantanamo Bay to the United States, House Speaker Paul Ryan said on Wednesday.
“We are making legal preparations if the president tries to break the law,” Ryan said. “And what boggles my mind is that the president is contemplating directing the military to knowingly break the law.”
The Pentagon-authored plan proposes 13 potential sites on US soil to hold some 30 to 60 detainees in maximum-security prisons. Obama is also considering taking executive action to close Guantanamo, situated at a US naval station in southeast Cuba, if Congress does not drop its opposition.
The speaker said that Obama is trying to extend the president’s executive authority beyond its limits of the US Constitution.
Democrats accused House Republicans of wasting taxpayer dollars on litigation. In recent years the House Republican majority has spent nearly $3m in this way.