The White House says it expects additional transfers of prisoners from the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay to be announced before President Barack Obama leaves office later this month.
"I would expect at this point additional transfers to be announced before January 20," spokesman Josh Earnest said on January 3, hours after President-elect Donald Trump demanded a freeze.
INFOGRAPHIC: Where Do Guantanamo Detainees Go?
"There should be no further releases from Gitmo,” Trump tweeted. “These are extremely dangerous people and should not be allowed back onto the battlefield."
A source close to the matter was quoted as saying last month that Obama planned to transfer as many as 18 more prisoners from Guantanamo -- nearly one-third of the remaining inmates at the facility in Cuba where the United States has held terrorism suspects following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
Obama pledged before his first term began in 2009 that he would close Guantanamo, but he faced stiff opposition in Congress.