A freshman senator from Caldwell Parish wants Louisiana to officially request the federal government refrain from sending Guantanamo Bay detainees here because they would “present a high risk and a clear and present danger to all” residents of the Bayou State. Sen. Neil Riser, a Republican from Columbia, spells out his appeal in Senate Concurrent Resolution 4, which is expected to be debated during the regular legislative session that convenes April 27.
The Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility in Cuba first came to prominence in the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks and has since become the only complex in the world that is solely responsible for holding individuals that pose a high-security risk to the United States. It currently houses roughly 245 detainees from more than 30 countries, including terrorist trainers, terrorist financiers, bomb makers, Al Qaeda recruiters and facilitators, and would-be suicide bombers.
Riser argues that Guantanamo Bay is a “secure location, away from the United States population” and that the U.S. Senate passed a resolution—not an actual law—in 2007 stating that “detainees housed at Guantanamo should not be released into American society, nor should they be transferred stateside into facilities in American communities and neighborhoods.”
Riser wants lawmakers to adopt his resolution during the session and have the state send a copy to Congress, the U.S. attorney general and the Federal Bureau of Prisons.—Jeremy Alford
