THOMSON — Two lawyers who have represented Guantanamo Bay detainees say worries about transferring prisoners to northwestern Illinois are overblown.

The lawyers said most of the detainees being held at the Defense Department facility in Cuba aren’t as dangerous as they’ve been made out to be. Instead, they say, most have only a hazy connection with al-Qaida, the Taliban or some other group.

“They’ve been described as the worst of the worst, and I think that’s wildly inaccurate,” said Jonathan Hafetz, an attorney at the national security project for the American Civil Liberties Union. “The notion they’d become some security risk is not borne out by the facts.”

Ever since the Obama administration said it considered the nearly vacant 1,600-cell prison in Thomson a leading contender to take the prisoners, there’s been considerable debate over how much risk the move would present to the surrounding community.

Republican lawmakers have argued the prisoners are best kept in Cuba and that by bringing them to northwestern Illinois, the administration could be making the mostly rural area a target for their allies, sympathizers or their families.

Over the weekend, congressional Republicans from Illinois circulated a letter warning that trials could be held in Rockford or downtown Chicago, a claim the administration says isn’t true. It says the site of the trials wouldn’t have anything to do with where the prisoners are held.

Originally, there were more than 700 detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, but that number has dwindled to 215.

Longtime critics of the Guantanamo Bay policies say most of those held aren’t alleged to be foreign fighters or even members of a terrorist group.

Instead, government records show 60 percent are only “associated” with al-Qaida, the Taliban or some other group, and that connection hasn’t been defined, said Mark Denbeaux, director of the Seton Hall Law School’s Center for Policy and Research in New Jersey, which has studied the makeup of the Guantanamo Bay population.

Denbeaux added there also are “al-Qaida people” who testified at trials and were placed in a witness-protection program.

“They’re here, and they’re not even in jail,” he said.

Thirty of the 38 detainees who have gotten habeas corpus hearings were ordered released.

Republican lawmakers and others say they’re worried that even with detainees under lock and key, people who might sympathize with their cause could be a threat to the area.

“The problem is we’re not closing Gitmo. We’re just moving it north,” said Rich Carter, a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Don Manzullo, R-Ill., who represents the area. He said the makeup of the detainees themselves isn’t relevant to the larger concern of whether the transfer of prisoners from such a controversial facility could attract terrorists.

“Thomson is a much more vulnerable place than Guantanamo Bay,” he said.

Administration officials downplayed that worry at a news conference Monday afternoon at the Illinois prison.

Harley Lappin, the director of the federal Bureau of Prisons, said that has not been a problem at other facilities where those who have been convicted of international terrorism are being held.

“We have not seen threats of that nature,” he said.

The administration has not given a time frame for a decision. It has said only a limited number will be transferred to Thomson. U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said it was fewer than 100. Carter, however, said they were told in a briefing the number would be between 100 and 150.

If Thomson is chosen, the federal government would buy the prison and fill the rest of the facility with federal inmates. The Defense Department would be in charge of the Guantanamo Bay detainees.