DENVER (AP) – Forty sheriffs in Colorado wrote to the White House to oppose any plan to move detainees from the detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to prisons in the state.
The sheriffs argued in the letter sent Monday that Colorado would be in danger if the Pentagon sends Guantanamo detainees to either of two prisons under consideration in the central part of the state.
Although the prisons are capable of securing the detainees, the action would attract “sympathizers who would mount an attack … or commit other acts of terror,” the lawmen wrote.
“We believe it would be dangerously naive not to recognize that a civilian prison with an untold number of enemy combatant inmates, located in our state, would provide a very tempting target for anyone wishing to either free these detainees or simply wishing to make a political statement,” the sheriffs wrote.
The letter was signed by many of Colorado’s 64 sheriffs. The top signer is Fremont County Sheriff James Beicker, whose county includes the two facilities under consideration, Colorado State Penitentiary II and the Federal Correctional Complex, known as Supermax.