Baker, a lawyer who served in President George H.W. Bush's Cabinet, said he has struggled with its legal implications.

"It gives us a very, very bad name, not just internationally," he said. "I have a great deal of difficulty understanding how we can hold someone, pick someone up, particularly someone who might be an American citizen — even if they were caught somewhere abroad, acting against American interests — and hold them without ever giving them an opportunity to appear before a magistrate."