The Bush administration is trying to determine how to proceed after the US Supreme Court ruled that the tribunal system it set up to try the 450 terrorism suspects - including Australian David Hicks - was illegal.
Most of the Guantanamo inmates have been held for more than four years without charges at the detention facility built in Cuba after the toppling of the Taliban government in Afghanistan at the end of 2001.
Criticism of the treatment of detainees has led to international calls to close Guantanamo, where three prisoners committed suicide on June 10.
The White House says Guantanamo cannot be closed until its prisoners are either repatriated or tried.
"We are not going to move them into places on American soil and to the civil justice system," said spokesman Tony Snow.
"They are in a holding pattern to the extent that those who are not being repatriated are going to be staying there.
"There are no plans at this point to move them into another facility except to the extent to which we are able to repatriate those who might, in fact, be tried and cared for elsewhere.”
Mr Bush had insisted after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that as commander-in-chief he possessed "inherent authority" to hold "enemy combatants" at Guantanamo and use special military tribunals to determine their fate.
But in its June 29 ruling on the Hamdan v. Rumsfeld case, the US Supreme Court found the administration position was contrary to US law, and said the tribunals were flawed because, among other shortcomings, they were established without congressional authorisation.
The White House has interpreted the high-court ruling to mean it must go to Congress to authorise a system for trying the prisoners. Congress planned to hold hearings this week.
Hicks depressed
Meanwhile Mr Hicks’ lawyer, Major Michael Mori, says his client is unsurprised by the US Supreme Court decision.
Mr Hicks is currently being held in Guantanamo, charged with terrorism related offences after being bought by US officials from an Afghan warlord in 2002.
He has now been held in solitary confinement for three months.
"We told him all along that they (military tribunals) were illegal, the Law Council of Australia said so, the attorney-general for Great Britain has said so, so it really wasn't a surprise," Major Mori said.
"He sits in a cement room, they now maybe offer him one hour recreation a day. Unfortunately (when) I see him, he's definitely in a depressive type of state."
Major Mori said guards at the camp had removed all reading material from Hicks, including a copy of the Geneva Convention, which some legal experts say is broken by Guantanamo Bay.
With mid-term elections coming in the US in November, Major Mori says Hicks could be left languishing in the prison.