Biden expects Gitmo will close before Obama leaves office

Vice President Biden says he expects the military detention center at Guantánamo Bay to close before President Obama leaves office in January.

“That is my hope and expectation,” Biden said Thursday during a news conference in Sweden, according to Reuters.

{mosads}Obama has promised to close the controversial facility in Cuba, but opposition from Congress has repeatedly blocked his attempts, leaving the detainees’ fates unclear.

The Department of Defense (DOD) announced earlier this month that it was transferring 15 detainees to the United Arab Emirates. 

The transfer, the DOD’s largest so far, reduced the prisoner population at Guantánamo Bay to 61.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, meanwhile, said earlier this month that he would keep the facility open if he wins the presidential election.

Trump also recently said he would try Americans accused of terrorism at the U.S. military base in Cuba.

“Well, I know that they want to try them in our regular court systems, and I don’t like that at all,” he told the Miami Herald on Aug. 11. “I don’t like that at all. I would say they could be tried there, that would be fine. I want to make sure that if we have radical Islamic terrorists, we have a very safe place to keep them.”

Congressional action would be required for U.S. citizens accused of terrorism to be tried by military tribunals at Guantánamo Bay.