WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled that 17 Turkic Muslims from China cleared for release from Guantanamo Bay — but who cannot be returned to their homeland — must stay at the prison camp, raising the stakes for an Obama administration that has pledged to quickly close the facility and free those who have not been charged.
In a showdown over presidential power, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said a judge went too far last October in ordering entry into the U.S. for the 17 men, known as Uighurs, over the objections of the Bush administration.
The three-judge panel suggested the detainees — who fear they will be tortured if they are returned to China — might be able to seek entry by applying to the Homeland Security Department, which administers U.S. immigration laws. But the court bluntly concluded that the detainees otherwise had no constitutional right to immediate freedom after being held in custody at the facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, without charges for nearly seven years.
“Such sentiments, however high-minded, do not represent a legal basis for upsetting settled law and overriding the prerogatives of the political branches,” Judge A. Raymond Randolph, an appointee of President George H.W. Bush, wrote for the three-judge panel.
Attorneys for the detainees said they were considering whether to appeal the decision to the full appeals court or the Supreme Court. But they made clear it was now time for President Barack Obama to take action after eight years of Bush administration detention policies.
“The ball is in President Obama’s court,” said Emi MacLean, an attorney with the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights. “If he is genuinely committed to closing Guantanamo, one clear and immediate step he should take is release the Uighurs into the U.S.”
The White House declined to comment on the ruling, citing its ongoing review on closing the Guantanamo prison. The State Department has said it is continuing diplomatic efforts to resettle the Uighurs and other detainees in other countries.
At issue in the case was whether a federal judge has the authority to order the release of prisoners at Guantanamo who were unlawfully detained by the U.S. and can’t be sent back to their homeland. The Muslims were cleared for release from Guantanamo as early as 2003.
Earlier this month, Beijing warned other countries not to accept the men.
U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina in October ordered the government to release the 17 men into the U.S., noting that they were no longer considered enemy combatants. He sternly rebuked the Bush administration for a detention policy toward the Uighurs that “crossed the constitutional threshold into infinitum.”
