Transfer of Guantanamo detainees halted
WASHINGTON - A US appeals court reversed a ruling yesterday that would have transferred 17 Guantanamo Bay detainees, none of whom are labeled enemy combatants, to the United States. The ruling casts further uncertainty on the fate of the Turkic-speaking Muslims from western China.
Because there is no evidence that they plotted or fought against the United States, the government has no authority to hold them at Guantanamo Bay, but deciding what to do with the men has been a diplomatic problem for years.
The military says the men have ties to a militant group that demands separation from China. The United States will not release the Uighurs to their home country for fear they will be tortured.
This month, Beijing warned other countries not to accept the men, creating a potential diplomatic roadblock to President Obama's plan to close the facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, within a year.
US District Judge Ricardo Urbina ruled in October that, because they are not enemy combatants, the Uighurs must be released to the United States. But the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit overturned that ruling yesterday.
Only the executive branch, not the courts, can make decisions about immigration, the appeals court said. That fact doesn't change, the court said, simply because the United States has held the men for years without charge. "Such sentiments, however high-minded, do not represent a legal basis for upsetting settled law," Judge A. Raymond Randolph wrote.
The decision has ramifications beyond the Uighurs. The Supreme Court has held that Guantanamo detainees can go to court to fight their imprisonment. But the ruling says a judge can hear the case but has no authority to free the detainees. 