Court reverses ruling bringing 17 detainees to U.S.

WASHINGTON – A federal appeals court has overturned a ruling that would have transferred 17 Guantanamo Bay detainees to the United States.

The men are Turkic Muslims known as Uighurs. They have been cleared for release from Guantanamo, but the United States will not send them home to China for fear they will be tortured. So they remain in prison while the U.S. figures out what to do with them.

A federal judge ruled in October that the men should be transferred to U.S. soil because they were no longer enemy combatants and the government didn’t have the authority to hold them.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled Wednesday that only immigration officials, not a judge, can bring foreigners into the country.