WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) this week spoke on the Senate floor emphasizing that in the wake of the recent terror attacks, now is the “absolute” wrong time for the administration to be putting forth a plan to relocate Guantanamo Bay detainees to the United States mainland, particularly when there has been no intelligence assessment on the danger of such a move. Watch Senator Roberts’ address here.

“The question is, how can the Administration ask Kansans, or any Americans, to paint a bullseye on their community without providing assurances that moving detainees to the U.S. will not pose a threat to them or our national security?” Roberts said. “It seems unfathomable, and yet, this president is proposing to do just that.”

“As our nation memorializes those who perished in France, it is the absolute wrong time for President Obama and this Administration to be putting forth a plan to relocate Guantanamo Bay detainees to the United States mainland.”

He continued, “We must put national security back as our top priority. It must be our first duty in the Congress, and by the Commander-in-Chief. America’s national security is my top priority and bringing Guantanamo Bay detainees to the United States is not putting our nation’s security above politics, campaign promises, or anything else.”

He noted that the administration was set this week to release a plan with options for the relocation of terrorists currently detained at Guantanamo Bay. The White House has announced that the release of the plan has now been delayed.

Roberts yesterday wrote a letter to Secretary of Defense Ash Carter demanding answers about the intelligence on the consequences to national security of this move, saying “How can the Administration decide that moving these terrorists is in our best interests if we do not have an analysis of the threats? With both the American people and the Congress opposed to this executive action, how is the President reaching this decision?”

Roberts also noted that U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch agrees that “if the president acts by Executive Order, he is acting unconstitutionally.”