Bill Text: IL HR0762 | 2009-2010 | 96th General Assembly | Introduced
Bill Title: Urges Governor Patrick Quinn and his administration to immediately halt all negotiations or contacts with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and all other relevant federal offices and departments, relating to the proposed transfer of the Thomson Correctional Center to the federal government for purposes of a Military Commissions Act of 2006 detention facility, until they initiate consultations with the Illinois General Assembly and receive their consent to undertake this move.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 19-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2010-01-11 - Referred to Rules Committee [HR0762 Detail]
Download: Illinois-2009-HR0762-Introduced.html
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1 | HOUSE RESOLUTION
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2 | WHEREAS, Governor Pat Quinn has proposed to convey the | ||||||
3 | Thomson Correctional Center to the United States federal | ||||||
4 | government for use as a prison and detention facility for | ||||||
5 | persons subject to the Military Commissions Act of 2006; and
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6 | WHEREAS, Persons subject to the Military Commissions Act | ||||||
7 | include persons accused of complicity in some of the gravest | ||||||
8 | war crimes ever committed by members of the human race; and
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9 | WHEREAS, The Thomson Correctional Center was designed and | ||||||
10 | built as a 1,600-bed conventional maximum-security prison | ||||||
11 | facility, with the security perimeter of a conventional prison, | ||||||
12 | and is well-suited for this purpose; and
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13 | WHEREAS, Nothing in this Resolution should be taken as | ||||||
14 | opposition to using the Thomson Correctional Center as a | ||||||
15 | conventional 1,600-bed maximum-security prison; we recognize | ||||||
16 | that this would create much-needed jobs for the Thomson area, | ||||||
17 | including employment for a significant number of workers in | ||||||
18 | northwestern Illinois; and
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19 | WHEREAS, Nothing in this Resolution should be taken as | ||||||
20 | opposition to the sale, at a fair price, of the Thomson | ||||||
21 | Correctional Center, to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, for use |
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1 | as a conventional 1,600-bed prison facility, the purpose for | ||||||
2 | which it was designed; and
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3 | WHEREAS, The Quinn proposal contemplates using Thomson, | ||||||
4 | not as a conventional 1,600-bed maximum-security prison, but as | ||||||
5 | a federal detention facility for approximately 200 persons | ||||||
6 | subject to the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which covers | ||||||
7 | unlawful enemy combatants engaged in hostilities against the | ||||||
8 | United States; and
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9 | WHEREAS, Unlawful enemy combatants subject to the Military | ||||||
10 | Commissions Act of 2006 are currently housed at Camp Delta, | ||||||
11 | Camp V, and Camp Echo at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp at | ||||||
12 | the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba, where they are guarded | ||||||
13 | by United States armed forces; and
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14 | WHEREAS, If unlawful enemy combatants against the United | ||||||
15 | States, subject to the Military Commissions Act of 2006, are | ||||||
16 | kept in detention, they ought to be kept in a purpose-built | ||||||
17 | facility that has been constructed for the specialized duty of | ||||||
18 | keeping them in confinement under extraordinary conditions of | ||||||
19 | high security, including: (a) the maintenance of a suitable | ||||||
20 | security perimeter around the facility, and (b) specially | ||||||
21 | trained and specialized security guards, who should either be | ||||||
22 | members of the U.S. armed forces or be persons who have | ||||||
23 | undergone training equivalent to members of the U.S. armed |
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1 | forces; and
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2 | WHEREAS, While the current headcount of persons who will be | ||||||
3 | treated indefinitely as detainees subject to the Military | ||||||
4 | Commissions Act of 2006 is not public information, a current | ||||||
5 | press account published in the "New York Times" on May 21, 2009 | ||||||
6 | indicates that the headcount of detainees currently at | ||||||
7 | Guantanamo Bay is approximately 200; and of that number | ||||||
8 | somewhat more than 100 are scheduled, under the current policy | ||||||
9 | of the administration of President Barack Obama, to be moved to | ||||||
10 | the United States; and of that number 50 to 100 are likely to | ||||||
11 | be classified as being too dangerous to ever release; and
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12 | WHEREAS, This group of 200 Guantanamo Bay detainees, | ||||||
13 | classified as unlawful enemy combatants subject to the Military | ||||||
14 | Commissions Act of 2006, is the core group of people at the | ||||||
15 | heart of this debate over the future of the Thomson | ||||||
16 | Correctional Center; other unlawful enemy combatants may be | ||||||
17 | captured and detained in the future, but this is the headcount | ||||||
18 | of people who are the subject of this debate right now; and
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19 | WHEREAS, Even assuming that the Thomson Correctional | ||||||
20 | Center were to be adaptively re-used as a federal detention | ||||||
21 | center for up to 200 detainees, it will likely house far fewer | ||||||
22 | prisoners, and create fewer jobs, than if it is put into use as | ||||||
23 | the 1,600-bed conventional maximum-security prison that it was |
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1 | designed to be; and
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2 | WHEREAS, There is ongoing concern that the persons detained | ||||||
3 | in Guantanamo have allies around the world who may respond to | ||||||
4 | these detentions with an ongoing threat of homicidal violence | ||||||
5 | that will stretch indefinitely into the future; and
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6 | WHEREAS, The federal administrative decision to close the | ||||||
7 | current detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay, and transfer | ||||||
8 | these detainees to the populated territory of the United | ||||||
9 | States, and the proposal that they be detained in Illinois, | ||||||
10 | does not take account of this ongoing and indefinite threat to | ||||||
11 | the people of the United States, or the people of Illinois; and
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12 | WHEREAS, Exercising its oversight responsibilities, the | ||||||
13 | United States Senate, on May 19, 2009, by a bipartisan vote of | ||||||
14 | 90-6, stripped language from the Supplemental Appropriations | ||||||
15 | Act of 2009 that would have appropriated $80 million to | ||||||
16 | implement the closure of the detention camps at Guantanamo, | ||||||
17 | thereby expressing the sense of a consensus majority of the | ||||||
18 | Senate that this threat should not be imposed upon the | ||||||
19 | peaceful, law-abiding people of the United States; therefore, | ||||||
20 | be it
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21 | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE | ||||||
22 | NINETY-SIXTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that |
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1 | the 1,600-bed Thomson Correctional Center, located in a | ||||||
2 | thickly-populated rural section of northwest Illinois near the | ||||||
3 | Mississippi River, is not a suitable facility, nor does it have | ||||||
4 | a suitable security perimeter, nor is it placed in a suitable | ||||||
5 | location, for the indefinite detention of up to 200 unlawful | ||||||
6 | enemy combatants who are subject to the Military Commissions | ||||||
7 | Act of 2006; and be it further
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8 | RESOLVED, That Governor Patrick Quinn and his | ||||||
9 | administration should immediately halt all negotiations or | ||||||
10 | contacts with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons, the U.S. | ||||||
11 | Department of Homeland Security, and all other relevant federal | ||||||
12 | offices and departments, relating to the proposed transfer of | ||||||
13 | the Thomson Correctional Center to the federal government for | ||||||
14 | purposes of a Military Commissions Act of 2006 detention | ||||||
15 | facility, until they initiate consultations with the Illinois | ||||||
16 | General Assembly and receive its consent to undertake this | ||||||
17 | move; and be it further
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18 | RESOLVED, That we urge the Quinn administration to redouble | ||||||
19 | its efforts to find a use for the Thomson Correctional Center | ||||||
20 | as the 1,600-bed maximum-security conventional correctional | ||||||
21 | facility, the functional use for which it was designed; and be | ||||||
22 | it further
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23 | RESOLVED, That we urge the administration of President |
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1 | Barack Obama, in the strongest terms, to reconsider its | ||||||
2 | decision to close the detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay, | ||||||
3 | Cuba, on the grounds that this location, within the island of | ||||||
4 | Cuba, guarded by the armed forces of the United States, is by | ||||||
5 | far the best and safest location for the indefinite detention | ||||||
6 | of unlawful enemy combatants subject to the Military | ||||||
7 | Commissions Act of 2006; and be it further
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8 | RESOLVED, That we commend the United States Senate for its | ||||||
9 | defense of the people of the United States, and urge the | ||||||
10 | Congress to maintain its position in favor of the continued | ||||||
11 | operation of Guantanamo Bay and against the transfer of | ||||||
12 | unlawful enemy combatants to the territory of the United | ||||||
13 | States; and be it further
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14 | RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this Resolution be | ||||||
15 | transmitted to the President of the United States, to the two | ||||||
16 | United States Senators from Illinois, to the nineteen members | ||||||
17 | of the United States House of Representatives from Illinois, | ||||||
18 | and to the Governor of Illinois.
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