WASHINGTON (CN) – President Donald Trump made a major announcement during his State of the Union address Tuesday night, saying the prison at Guantanamo Bay will stay open, adding to an increasingly divisive administrative agenda amid his calls for unity and bipartisanship.
Trump announced the signing of the executive order during his speech. Its purpose, he explained, would be to relieve the U.S. from some of its national security concerns.
“Given that some of the current detainee population represent the most difficult and dangerous cases from among those historically detained at the facility, there is significant reason for concern regarding their reengagement in hostilities should they have the opportunity,” the executive order states.
American Civil Liberties Union director Hina Shamsi issued a statement condemning the decision.
“Trump is making a big mistake by doubling down on the national security and human rights disaster that is Guantanamo," Shamsi said. "For more than a decade, Presidents Bush and Obama tried to transfer people out responsibly, but Trump is reversing course. In trying to give new life to a prison that symbolizes America's descent into torture and unlawful indefinite detention, Trump will not make this country any safer."
Shamsi added that there were also financial costs to consider.
"The notion that Guantanamo is worthwhile would be laughable if it wasn't so tragic," Shamsi said. "In addition to the incalculable human suffering, it costs taxpayers more than $445 million a year to detain the 41 men now there. Congress should prevent President Trump from continuing unlawful detention and unconstitutional military commissions. And we all must pledge — not one person more in Guantanamo, not in our names.”
This development can be added to other roiling political divisions already in progress in Washington. Currently, it is the closely guarded memo both parties have doggedly fought over for days which undercuts calls for teamwork in Congress.
The secret House Intelligence Committee memo, according to those who have seen it, summarizes some of the intelligence methods used to support a federal request to surveil Carter Page, a former Trump campaign associate.
In order to get the warrant, the onus relied on both the FBI and Justice Department to prove probable cause to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
In that process, the government allegedly failed to disclose information in its application - namely, research paid for by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. Republicans who have seen it say it confirms the president’s claims that the Russia probe is a “witch hunt.”
On the other side of the aisle, Democrats who have read it say Republicans are being selective with the information presented and have a right to be since the memo was written by committee staff who are effectively overseen by Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif.
Nunes served on Trump’s transition team and has made multiple claims against Democrats, lamenting what he suggests is a campaign to undermine Trump’s presidency.
But to deliver his first address, the president relied on reassurances that upheaval in Washington would soon calm.
“Tonight, I want to talk about what kind of future we are going to have,” he said. “And what kind of nation we are going to be. All of us, together, as one team, as one people, and one American family.”
Consensus could not be achieved on that statement either.