U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he signed an order to keep open the military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which his predecessor, Barack Obama, unsuccessfully tried to close.
“I just signed, prior to walking in, an order directing (Defense) Secretary (Jim) Mattis … to re-examine our military detention policy and to keep open the detention facilities in Guantanamo Bay,” Trump said in his State of the Union speech.
“I am asking Congress to ensure that, in the fight against ISIS and al-Qaeda, we continue to have all necessary power to detain terrorists, wherever we chase them down, wherever we find them. And in many cases, for them, it will now be Guantanamo Bay,” the president added to applause.
Trump’s order revokes one issued by President Obama in his first days in office that called for the facility to close, which had been a key Obama campaign promise.
