Backlash From Fremont County On Proposal To Bring Guantanamo Bay Criminals To Colorado
FREMONT COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4)- There is backlash from Fremont County on a proposal to bring some of the world's most dangerous criminals to Colorado.
Right now those criminals are housed in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Fremont County officials doesn't want them.
A team from the Department of Defense toured Supermax in Florence and the Colorado State Penitentiary in Canon City.
"Under my direction, Department of Defense assessment teams are evaluating different sites," said Secretary of Defense Ash Carter.
Carter, under the direction of President Barack Obama is looking for a place to move suspected terrorists being housed in Gitmo.
Fremont County Commissioners plan to send a letter to President Obama, pleading with him, to move the prisoners somewhere else. They say they're tired of being known as "Prison Valley" and add that although they can handle the additional 114 prisoners, these are not typical inmates.
"These individuals intensify the threat level to an unacceptable point because of the inherent dangers posed by their associates on the outside," stated in the letter.
The commissioners also claim it's bad business, "We finally see some positive points of light from an economic development perspective and we cannot financially withstand the ambush of negative profiling these detainees would bring."
The move would need to be approved by congress. So far lawmakers have blocked the president's plan by barring prisoners from Guantanamo Bay traveling anywhere in the U.S.
