Officials from US President Barack Obama's administration will visit an almost empty Illinois prison during the week in order to see whether or not the facility can be used to house foreign terrorism suspects that are currently being held at the US Guantanamo Bay prison.

Obama has promised to shut down Guantanamo by January, according to the state's governor's office.

"They are weighing their options and Illinois is among them," said Robert Reed, a spokesman for Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, a Democrat.

The plan under consideration for the Thomson Correctional Center calls for the Federal Bureau of Prisons to operate it as a maximum-security prison for federal inmates and lease a part of it to the Defense Department, to house fewer than 100 Guantanamo detainees, according to Illinois Senator Dick Durbin.

The Thomson Correctional Center, located about 150 miles west of Chicago, was built by the state in 2001 and has 1,600 cells. Currently, it houses about 200 minimum-security prisoners.

Durbin said that preliminary estimates show more than 3,000 jobs would be created, potentially injecting more than 1 billion dollars into the local economy over the first four years of operation.

"This is an opportunity to dramatically reduce unemployment, create thousands of good-paying jobs, and breathe new economic life into this part of downstate Illinois," said Durbin, the US Senate's second-ranking Democrat, in a statement.

Other sites considered include Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, and a facility in Standish, Michigan.
Many Republicans have been extremely critical of the idea of moving Guantanamo prisoners to the United States.

"I can´t imagine the people of Illinois would like to have these prisoners incarcerated in their states. There may be some local officials who are going to support it, but I expect it will be a huge issue up in Illinois, probably in the US Senate race up there next year," said Senator Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the Senate, to a US news agency.

White House advisor David Axelrod did not give a direct answer when asked whether or not the administration will close Guantanamo by the promised January deadline.
Closing it is a crucial piece to Obama's credibility.