Guantanamo Bay

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCALISE. I appreciate my friend from Pennsylvania (Mr. Perry) for leading this Special Order to highlight, Mr. Speaker, what is at stake in this latest proposal by President Obama.

As you can see from the passion that my friend from South Carolina just exhibited, this is an issue that rivets throughout the country. People understand what is at stake. People across America know that there are bad people around the world that want to do us harm.

ISIS is on the move. They are not a JV team. They are not being detained. In fact, they are recruiting Westerners. In fact, they are recruiting Americans into the battle.

So you look at Guantanamo Bay. And this is something that, for whatever reason, has become a rallying cry for the political left. They wanted to close it down.

They wanted to bring those terrorists into the United States, to give them taxpayer-funded rights that the President can't even identify, but that everybody acknowledges they don't deserve. We don't need that kind of threat here.

When you look at the President's proposal this week, I think he has made it clear that he has put the political priorities of the far left elements over the safety and security of the United States of America. This would put Americans at risk by bringing these terrorists into the United States.

Just go look at what kind of people are being held at Guantanamo Bay. These are the worst of the worst. These are people who have plotted and actually carried out attacks against American servicemen and -women. They have killed Americans in the battlefield, killed our troops. These are the people who have carried out those attacks.

So they are being held at GTMO, as it is called, because that is the best place to ensure that we don't have to see them again on the battlefield.

Over 100 of those who have already been released have gone back into the battlefield, in many cases, to kill American soldiers. Why would the President want to give them extra rights? Why would the President want to bring them into the United States of America?

So, Mr. Speaker, we rise today and highlight this to point out, number one, what the President's intent really is and what the President is trying to do. This is something the President has asked Congress to take up.

Mr. Speaker, we are making it very clear it is not going to happen. This House will not allow these terrorists being detained at Guantanamo Bay to enter into the United States to undermine America's national security.

They are over there for a reason, which is because of terrorist attacks they have not only plotted, but carried out, against Americans. So, Mr. Speaker, they belong in Guantanamo Bay. Under this House, they are going to stay in Guantanamo Bay and not be brought into the United States.

Again, I thank my colleague from Pennsylvania for this Special Order that he is leading.

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