# Guantánamo remains open as Obama leaves office Date: 2017 ## The fact On 19 January 2017, [Obama](/people/barack-obama)’s last full day, the Guantánamo Bay detention facility remained open with several dozen detainees, despite Executive Order 13492 of 22 January 2009 directing closure within a year. Congress NDAA transfer bans share the file. ## Context Bush opened the camp. Neighbouring clemency the same day is a neighbour rights file. He reduced the population and issued a 2016 closure plan that did not finish. He did not sit as every member who wrote transfer bans. Clemency 19 January 2017 is a same-day rights file. Drones 2013 is a neighbour force architecture. NSA 2013 is a neighbour secrecy file. A United States president proposes, signs, vetoes, and directs the executive. Congress enacts statutes. The Federal Reserve, states, courts, and later presidents share later series. Office-holding is not authorship of every later outcome. Allegation is not a completed judgment. Legislative achievements require shared congressional attribution. He does not set the federal funds rate, write a state Medicaid waiver by himself, or convert a 2009 oath into a unique 2016 uninsured coefficient. A signature is not unique authorship of a House and Senate text. A troop order is not authorship of every later round. He is not president as of 27 August 2026. [Donald Trump](/people/mig-donald-trump) is president from 20 January 2025. [Joe Biden](/people/env-person-joe-biden) was president 2021–2025. ## Evidence and sources White House (archives) carries the official instrument or communique. The Guardian records the same dated act independently. ## Significance The path is justice and minority rights: a completed failure to close an extra-territorial detention camp. ## What is established and what is not Established: Camp remained open at the 19 January 2017 handoff, independently reported; 2009 closure order did not complete. Not established: that every remaining detainee uniquely sat because of one veto, or a unique later recidivism coefficient from the last day. What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, a later repeal, a court that vacated the instrument, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions. The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit. Congress banned many transfers. DoD still ran the camp.. A later repeal, court stay, or successor order would be a different Fact with a different date. That pair identifies Guantánamo remains open as Obama leaves office, not a later speech about Guantánamo remains open as Obama leaves office. Co-authors and later implementers named in Context remain on the file. Guantánamo remains open as Obama leaves office on 2017-01-19 is not a licence to treat every later White House (archives) communique as this same act. If a later repeal, stay, or successor instrument exists, it needs its own date and its own row. This dossier refuses to average Guantánamo remains open as Obama leaves office into a personality. The contribution described on this Person row is limited to He ordered closure in 2009 and did not finish. Congress banned many transfers. DoD still ran the camp. That limit is the alternative to treating office-holding as authorship of every later series. ## People - Barack Obama: https://factrail.ai/people/barack-obama ## Drivers - Judicial independence erosion (court capture): https://factrail.ai/drivers/justice-judicial-independence-erosion - Protection of Minority Rights: https://factrail.ai/drivers/protection-of-minority-rights ## Sources - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/18/guantanamo-bay-detainees-obama-final-transfers - https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2017/01/19/letter-president-report-respect-guantanamo ## Methodology https://factrail.ai/methodology Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/us-obama-gitmo-2017