Barack Obama says closing down the United States detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, on the island of Cuba, is a matter of closing a chapter in US history.
"When I talk to other world leaders, they bring up the fact that Guantanamo's not resolved. Moreover, keeping this facility open is contrary to our values. It undermines our standing in the world. It is viewed as a stain on our broader record of upholding the highest standards of rule of law."
The prison was opened on Cuba 14 years ago following the September 11 attacks, with a designed purpose to detain and interrogate people deemed a security threat.
But Mr Obama says keeping the facility open, besides being contrary to US values, drains military resources.
The United States spent nearly $450 million last year alone to keep it running.
Now, while the details are vague, the US president has proposed 13 potential sites on homeland soil for the transfer of the remaining detainees.
Mr Obama does not identify the facilities, nor endorse a specific one, and he has acknowledged there is significant opposition to closing the facility.
He has to get his plan passed by the Congress, which is controlled by a resistant Republican opposition, and the idea appears unlikely to gain traction.
Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has not offered optimism.
"We'll review President Obama's plan, but, since it includes bringing dangerous terrorists to facilities in US communities, he should know that the bipartisan will of Congress has already been expressed against that proposal."
But Mr Obama has moved to reassure the US public.
"A lot of the American public are worried about terrorism, and, in their mind, the notion of having terrorists held in the United States rather than in some distant place can be scary. But part of my message to the American people here is, 'We're already holding a bunch of really dangerous terrorists here in the United States, because we threw the book at them, and there have been no incidents. We've managed it just fine.'"
To many around the world, the facility has come to symbolise aggressive detention practices in past years that opened the United States to allegations of torture.
Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Mozzam Begg has told Al Jazeera television he welcomes Mr Obama's announcement.
But he says, even if Guantanamo detainees are sent to facilities on the US mainland, he struggles to see how the United States will make it work.
"The problem they're going to face is that most of these guys, if not all, have claimed they've been tortured, and the Senate report on torture came out last year identifying very clearly several of these individuals who had been waterboarded and had been rectally hydrated and beaten and tortured and abused. So once torture evidence enters the US mainland, what are they going to do? Are they going to rewrite the constitution and say, 'Now, for these particular cases, we will accept torture evidence'? Or will they have to do what the rule of law says, and that is to throw the cases out of court and release them."
US officials say about 35 prisoners will be transferred from Guantanamo to other countries this year, leaving the final number below 60.
Closing the facilities was one of Mr Obama's first promises as a presidential candidate in 2008 and is now becoming one of his last.
In his final year as president, Mr Obama says he does not want to pass the issue to his successor when he leaves the White House next year.
He is considering trying to close the facility by executive order if Congress does not back his proposal, but he would face a legal battle if he tries.
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