WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday to keep the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in operation indefinitely, suggesting that he may use the facility to house new terrorism suspects for the first time in a decade.
The order, issued as Trump delivered his first State of the Union address, solidifies the president’s well-known intention to keep suspected militants locked up at the military facility, part of his promise to take a hard line on terror.
But it also sheds new light on his administration’s approach to thorny detainee issues, indicating a willingness to end a decade-long moratorium on growing the prisoner population at Guantanamo.
The order rescinds another measure issued nine years ago by Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, who promised to close Guantanamo but was unable to overcome political opposition to bringing detainees to the United States.
Sixteen years after the prison opened, 41 detainees remain at Guantanamo. Of the more than 700 who have been held there since 2002, only a small minority of detainees have been charged with a crime, and fewer still have completed trial in a military court.
The Washington Post’s Anne Gearan, Joshua Dawsey and Ed O’Keefe contributed to this report.