Legalities
Life, Politics and the Law From ABC News Correspondent Jan Crawford Greenburg
Jan Crawford Greenburg is a correspondent for ABC News' bureau in Washington DC. She covers politics, the Supreme Court and provides legal analysis for ABC News. She is a graduate of the University of Chicago's law school and is a member of the New York bar.
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Detainees to be freed in the U.S.?
July 03, 2008 12:37 PM
As high-level discussions continue over the future of Guantanamo as a prison for al-Qaeda suspects, administration officials also are focusing on how to handle detainees who prevail in federal court and are ordered released from prison.
The administration fully expects the federal courts--which now must hear the prisoners' claims in the wake of last month's Supreme Court ruling--to order some of those GTMO detainees freed, senior officials say.
Lawyers for the detainees say that's because many should never have been imprisoned. The administration says that's not true--and that the problem stems from how the soldiers and CIA officers collected evidence on the battlefield and wrote it up, never expecting it to be used in litigation in a federal court.
Either way, both sides expect some detainees to be set free. And that raises a huge question: What to do with them?
The issue came up in today's White House briefing. Here's Dana Perino:
"One of the real implications of this decision that the Supreme Court made is that these detainees, if and when they challenge their detention in court, could be released into the United States."
She continued: "That's exactly what that decision said. That's one of the real implications. Because if they challenge their detention in DC district court, which is what the Supreme Court said they should do, and they're found to be held, that there's not enough evidence to hold them, they can then be released, free."
"That's one of the reasons that we have all of these very complicated questions that are unanswered," she said. "And that's one of them, the immigration piece of it, and what do you do?"
The district courts here are scrambling with how to handle all these detainee petitions (250 or so now filed). The Justice Department has asked for 30 more lawyers from US attorneys offices across the country to volunteer to come here and help out. Some 20 attorneys in the Justice Department have already been reassigned to these cases.
It's all because the Court said these detainees had a constitutional right to challenge their detentions in federal courts. And now, of course, they are.
If the courts find there's not enough evidence to hold them, they'll order their release. But to where? It's potentially a huge problem because the government says it can't find countries to accept the detainees--and under international law, it can't send them to countries where they'd be subjected to torture.
Here's the immigration issue: Just because the detainees are ordered released doesn't mean they have a right to legally be here in this country. But the government can't hold indefinitely aliens who don't have a lawful basis for being here. That's why Congress likely will have to get involved on the immigration issue and decide how it may be able to carve out something for these detainees who are in this no-man's land.
This is a separate issue from where to put detainees the courts say are properly held. That's also a potential issue for Congress if President Bush decides--as most officials and both presidential candidates agree--there's no point to GTMO anymore.
July 3, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (24)
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you send them back where you found them! if they dont want them they can find some where to place them...
Posted by: melissa | Jul 3, 2008 1:23:30 PM
wait a minute! Which came first, the chicken or the egg. Easy the detainees who could be freed should have had filed an application for asylum first before their present court case is heard and decided. Why not hand them residency while we're at it.
Other countries deal with this problem by putting defendants on a plane home.
You're innocent but you have no legal status. Torture BS, their countries are going to welcome them as heros as usual. An we're concered about their safety? What's the concern? I don' t want want them in my country or want to be a falafel sandwich from them.
Posted by: gloria | Jul 3, 2008 1:24:27 PM
maybe you can make it so they have to have a country that will accept them before you set them free?
Posted by: melissa | Jul 3, 2008 1:24:33 PM
ABC asks: "Detainees to be freed in the U.S.?"
Absolutely NOT! They should be deported (at our expense) back to the country of their citizenship if found innocent or non-involved.
Posted by: Rhys | Jul 3, 2008 1:33:25 PM
Let them free in all the sanctuary cities, in all the liberal cities where the locals are soft on crime.
Let the liberals come face to face with the people they sympathize with.
Obama can give them scholarships for our colleges! Free health care! Come and get it!
Posted by: Jo | Jul 3, 2008 1:37:54 PM
the liberals arent the ones who brought bush in who got us into this whole mess to begin with but do what the conservatives do and pass the blame and get mad at everyone else and then wish harm on other americans while calling liberals un-american...
Posted by: melissa | Jul 3, 2008 1:50:33 PM
Unbelievable.
Posted by: Nathan | Jul 3, 2008 2:16:13 PM
Mel- Because your disrespect of an older person makes you sound too young to know better. So you may have been wiser than you are now, for saying those things.You say respect is earned.
Well, don't you want to earn any? Start by respecting others. And that's a good start. I'm glad you are arguing though. Please don't make it confrontational.
I respect my listener.
Posted by: gloria | Jul 3, 2008 2:18:08 PM
gloria,
im 30 years old a working adult. I pay taxes and that pays them so they work for me and its a free country that gives me the right to speak my mind just like you. im not always right and sometimes i find out the hard way but im never going to stop saying what i think because its my right as an american....
you only respect your elders when you are a child.
Posted by: melissa | Jul 3, 2008 2:23:54 PM
almost forgot to write no disrespect intended either..
Posted by: melissa | Jul 3, 2008 2:35:56 PM
Resolved.
Posted by: gloria | Jul 3, 2008 2:42:00 PM
wlder5121 - what would you do that hasn't been done to get Bin Laden? Please, no fluff - just something substantial.
Posted by: S | Jul 3, 2008 2:57:53 PM
this is yet another example that demonstrates gwb is a failure and will go down in history as the worst president ever; even if he is not convicted of war crimes......rock on
Posted by: dr1321 | Jul 3, 2008 3:45:57 PM
I voted for Bush and because 9-11 so clouded his 1st term, I gave him a second chance. I have since become pretty much disgusted and fed up with the Republican party.
I will vote for Obama. But I do have to say that if somehow Bush stopped after the invasion of Afghanistan I would have said he was the greatest leader under a threat since FDR or Eisenhower.
In response to 9-11 he did what I wanted to be done-- take names and kick tail.
There was no way that Iraq was going to go any better than the breakup of Yugoslavia and it hasn't. The only reason why Yugoslavia has settled down somewhat is that we created a half dozen countries out of it. A solution like that is not an option in Iraq apparently. Just a stupid idea in the geo-political sense.
Now we have to babysit Israel, watch Afghanistan go towards the tube if not down it and watch Iran gain more strength than they could have hoped for.
Posted by: Last Call | Jul 3, 2008 4:28:15 PM
Well where do I start,like everything else they have gotten wrong till now what if the ones they set free are the ones that are bad and the ones they keep are the ones that should be set free. Man this Country of ours is getting really really bad. You know China my be bad at somethings but atlest they kill the people that need to be killed like a child rapist man they should be killed in the worst way but not hear we lock them up set them free a few years latter and all the while our tax dollars go to housing and feeding these scum of the earth.This Country always gets it wrong is always to late and wastes alot of our hard earned dollars man I,am just getting sick and tired of the way this Country is being run I say lets start taking care of us first because in the end it is our money that you send to other Counties to help them when in this Country we have no health care poeple staving its just making me sick to be and American so its time to start helping us wich us is still part of the USA and if they dont start we the people must put the people in place to do the things that need to be done for the people by the people atlest thats what it says Michael W Ruark a true American........
Posted by: Michael W.Ruark | Jul 4, 2008 4:34:13 AM
melissa...the Liberal are the ones that let them build their terrorist camps during the time the Cole was attacked the first world trade center attack THEY DID NOTHING, they also let the ones in our country in 1998, the very ones the took down the Word trade center. and now the Liberals judges will allow to a chance to go free. Liberals are not tough on crime and not capable of defending our country.....they can all live in New York, You libs will except them, like you did before 2001
Posted by: jneofordrillhere | Jul 4, 2008 8:13:15 AM
Oh my God! Stupid! Chalk one up for the fanatic left wing liberals.
Posted by: LongT | Jul 4, 2008 8:51:07 AM
If Gitmo is closed, send the inmates back to the place where they were captured. Nothing to argue about. They were fighting for that part of the world, so let them have it!
Posted by: Irnotu | Jul 4, 2008 3:36:04 PM
Send them all to Crawford,Texas and let the stay at the ranch...They can help Bush cut weeds.
Posted by: Brutice | Jul 5, 2008 2:15:17 AM
send them to crawford texas
Posted by: tom | Jul 5, 2008 11:00:17 AM
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