U.S. to Accept Some Uighurs From Gitmo

The Obama administration is reportedly preparing to allow up to seven Chinese Muslims imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay to settle in the United States, according to The Los Angeles Times. The plan is not final, however; it could face opposition both from China and within the United States, where many communities and local politicians have resisted the resettlement of former Guantanamo Bay prisoners.

The release of the Uighurs, some of whom have been officially cleared for release from prison since 2003, is a critical step toward President Obama’s ability to close the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay by the end of this year, as he pledged to do during his first days in office.

As I’ve written before, the Uighurs were seized by U.S. forces in Afghanistan and Pakistan and sent to Guantanamo Bay. Some have been held there more than seven years. Although the Bush administration determined that they’re not “enemy combatants” (they were allegedly training to use weapons in Afghanistan, but likely against China, not the United States), they can’t be returned to China because they’re likely to face persecution there, where they’re wanted for supporting separatist activities.

U.S. government efforts to resettle the Uighurs in other countries, however, have failed, largely because former U.S. officials deemed them too dangerous to be released into the United States. Other countries were therefore understandably reluctant to accept them, although Albania agreed to take five former Uighur prisoners.

In October, a federal judge ordered that the Uighurs be released into the United States because the government had no legal justification for imprisoning them. But an appeals court reversed that decision, ruling that the courts have no authority to order the government to release any “aliens” into the United States; only the President and Department of Homeland Security have that power. The Uighurs recently sought review of that decision in the Supreme Court.

While the decision to release the Uighurs may be designed in part to quell the objections many lawyers and human rights advocates raised after the court of appeals’ ruling, The Los Angeles Times notes that the decision is not yet final — the Department of Homeland Security has reportedly “registered concerns about the plan.”