Biden wants to close prison at Guantanamo Bay
US President Joe Biden wants to close the Guantanamo Bay prison for terror suspects before the end of his term, the White House said Friday, echoing an unfulfilled campaign promise from Barack Obama's administration.
Asked at a press conference about a possible closure of the prison in Cuba during Biden's tenure, spokeswoman Jen Psaki said, "That certainly is our goal and our intention."
The military prison accommodates inmates linked to the US "war on terror" including Pakistani Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
It still houses around 40 detainees, 26 of whom are considered too dangerous to be released, but legal proceedings drag on due to the complexity of their cases.
After 9/11, the US Army, under the presidency of George W Bush, quickly built the detention center on a naval base belonging to the United States at the eastern tip of Cuba, on a small enclave ceded by Cuba to the United States in 1903, to thank its powerful neighbor for its help in the war against the Spaniards.
Meanwhile, asylum seekers forced to remain in Mexico while their cases are being resolved in the United States will begin to be admitted into the US as of next week, Biden's administration announced Friday.
At least 70,000 people were returned to Mexico under the agreement from January 2019, when the program began to be implemented, through December 2020.
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