Lawmaker Ron Stephens posts petition against bringing Guantanamo detainees to Illinois

KSDK --  Republican representative Ron Stephens of Highland, Illinois is asking everyone who disagrees with the recently unveiled plan to bring terrorist detainees from Guantanamo Bay to Illinois to sign a new petition on his website, www.RepStephens.com.  

"This past weekend, Governor Quinn, Senator Durbin and President Obama's Administration unveiled a plan they had concocted to bring terrorist detainees to the prison in Thompson," Stephens said. "I am completely against this idea. These dangerous individuals need to be kept in Cuba and not brought into our state."

Stephens has created a petition Illinois residents can sign electronically on his website, telling the Governor they oppose his plan. 

Those in favor of the move say the terror suspects will not bring the danger Stephens and other opponents claim they will.

Convicted terrorists already are held in U.S. prisons.  Federal Bureau of Prisons director Harley Lappin said that more than 340 international and domestic terrorists are currently incarcerated on American soil.

Opponents have also claimed that the terror suspects would influence other inmates in the jails to turn to a life of terrorism.  The Bureau of Prisons told the Associated Press that the Guantanamo detainees would not be allowed to mingle with the general population.