Austin, TX – U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) posted a notice on Wednesday soliciting private sector interest for a new detention center in South Texas that could hold up to 1,100 immigrants, continuing its relentless discrimination and crackdown on immigrants across the state.
From a piece in Reveal by Patrick Michaels:
The post is a preliminary request for information, asking for room to house men and women within 50 miles of I-35. ICE said its preference is for a facility dedicated to holding its detainees, but it would consider a large facility with inmates from another agency. The agency said it will consider pre-existing facilities, renovated old facilities or new construction.
Bob Libal, executive director of Grassroots Leadership issued the following statement:
Texas continues to be ground zero in the assault on immigrant communities — from cruel and retaliatory immigration raids to expanded for-profit detention beds to the implementation of the racial profiling law SB4. Gov. Greg Abbott and President Donald Trump seem dead-set on terrorizing communities across our state. But Texas communities are standing up and fighting back against these types of policies and programs, and we need our local officials to stand with us to pass policies to push back on the detention and deportation system.
Mario Carrillo, state director of America’s Voice Texas issued the following statement:
Combined with the discriminatory law SB4, this effort by Trump’s Deportation Force to terrorize immigrants is only the latest in a pattern of increased immigration enforcement across the country. More detention beds will only lead to an increase in detention of immigrants without criminal records, Dreamers, and families fleeing violence. It goes against who we are as a state and as a country, and instead of increased enforcement, it is imperative that city leaders continue pushing policies that will protect the safety and dignity of all Texans.
Below is an excerpt from Michaels’ piece. Find the piece in its entirety here.
The contract would mean more good news for the private prison industry, which has rebounded quickly under President Donald Trump. A year ago, the federal government seemed poised to end deals with the private prison industry’s biggest players, after federal inspectors noted safety concerns in their facilities.
In the three months following Trump’s election, stocks in The GEO Group Inc. and CoreCivic went up 98 and 140 percent, respectively, signaling investors’ expectations that the government would do more business with the companies soon.
The industry is dominated by those two companies, both of which helped bankroll Trump’s presidential campaign; political arms of each contributed $250,000 to his inauguration party. The Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit campaign finance watchdog, has filed complaints about some of those contributions, alleging that they violated a ban on campaign contributions by federal contractors.
In April, The GEO Group announced plans to build a 1,000-bed facility for ICE in Conroe, north of Houston, under a deal worth $110 million. However, ICE began solicitingcontractors for that facility in 2015, well before Trump took office.
Follow Mario Carrillo and America’s Voice: Texas on Twitter: @_mariocarrillo_ and @AmericasVoice
America’s Voice: Texas– Harnessing the power of American voices and American values to win common sense immigration reform
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