In a tough economy, with the potential to create thousands of jobs, it’s still not an easy sell to get a community to house the Gitmo prisoners.
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn (D) and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D) are on an aggressive campaign to counter opposition and create support for the feds to buy the 1,600 cell Thomson Correctional Center in rural northwestern Illinois and house Guantanamo Bay detainees and other inmates, the Associated Press reported.
Federal officials are scheduled to visit the facility in Thomson, Ill., which is more than a two-hour drive from Chicago. The prison has an average daily population of less than 200, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections.
“We have an opportunity to bring thousands of good-paying jobs to Illinois when we need them the most,” Durbin said at a news conference in Chicago, AP reported.
“We have an opportunity to bring them to a part of our state that has been struggling and that’s an opportunity we are not going to miss.”
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