The lure of an ICE detention center for small, financially-troubled towns can be irresistible.
Monsy Alvarado, Ashley Balcerzak, Stacey Barchenger, Jon Campbell, Rafael Carranza, Maria Clark, Alan Gomez, Daniel Gonzalez, Trevor Hughes, Rick Jervis, Dan Keemahill, Rebecca Plevin, Jeremy Schwartz, Sarah Taddeo, Lauren Villagran, Dennis Wagner, Elizabeth Weise, Alissa Zhu, USA TODAY Networkwas attending the grand opening of a Louisiana prison in 1997 when a sheriff mentioned he’d like a new jail but didn’t want to operate it. McConnell saw money in that moment.
Network reporters interviewed 35 current or former detainees and reviewed hundreds of documents from lawsuits, financial records and government contracts and toured seven ICE facilities from. They found that private prison companies established close ties with officials from the very top of the federal government all the way down to the local level, currying favor with sheriffs and city officials who often serve as middlemen to secure big-money ICE contracts.
Young migrants use computers inside a classroom in the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas.David Venturella, senior vice president of client relations at GEO Group, one of the two largest companies detaining immigrants, said his company has been doing the same work for more than 30 years.
Another increase in immigration detention came around 2008. The prison boom of the 1990s was beginning to level off just as the Great Recession hit. A number of states moved away from private prisons as a way to cut costs, making the federal government’s steadily increasing use of immigration detention a more stable, promising source of revenue.
“You have this fertile ground for ICE and the federal government to move in to pay two or three times as much,” said Jamila Johnson, managing attorney at the Promise of Justice Initiative, a New Orleans-based nonprofit organization focused on criminal justice changes in the state. The giants in the field – GEO Group and CoreCivic – have operated private prisons for more than 35 years. They manage 41 facilities that hold more than half of all detainees in ICE custody.
Detainees are given this set of clothing when they arrive at the Bluebonnet Detention Center in Anson, Texas.“It was because they were becoming less and less popular on the stock market, partly due to how badly they ran their facilities,” said Judy Green, group that focuses on changing the criminal justice and immigration systems.
GEO Group and CoreCivic each donated $250,000 to Trump’s inaugural committee that helped fund the festivities as he was sworn into office. Hininger of CoreCivic said the company supported inaugurations of Presidents George W. Bush and Obama but did not provide specifics on how much they donated to those committees.
Speaking to the USA TODAY Network, Venturella did not rule out holding GEO events at Trump properties but said the company would take into account the publicity that would probably follow such a decision.Two donations to a pro-Trump super PAC became the subjects of a lawsuit and Federal Election Commission complaint.
In response, the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan watchdog group based in Washington, filed a complaint with the FEC alleging that GEO Group violated the ban prohibiting government contractors from making contributions to political committees. GEO Group said the donation was made by a subsidiary that has not won any government contracts, so it did not break any campaign finance laws. The complaint is pending.
The scope of the private prisons’ donations to Republican causes was seen during an event Trump hosted at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club. In 2018, private prison companies spent $3.8 million on federal lobbying. Their lobbying efforts during the Obama administration peaked at $2.75 million in 2016, according to federal disclosure reports and data from the Center for Responsive Politics.
“We know that we’re up against incredibly well-funded special interests that will say anything and stop at nothing to distort the role we play,” she said. , worked on his transition team and was hired by the White House in November to work on “proactive impeachment messaging.” “There are a lot of connections,” said Zibel, who wrote a report on private prison influence. “It’s pretty clear that the private prison industry saw the Trump administration as an opportunity to expand its business and work with like-minded people.”In central Louisiana, LaSalle Parish Sheriff Scott Franklin was up for reelection this year and received $5,000 in campaign donations from LaSalle Corrections and its affiliates, according to records filed with the Louisiana Board of Ethics.
Those contributions have also ended up in the hands of state officials who have close ties to Trump or have a chance to bend his ear.Pence received about $36,000 from the industry for his 2016 campaign before ditching his reelection bid for Indiana governor to become Trump’s running mate, according to the data. He and his running mate collected $33,000 in donations in the 2012 gubernatorial election.
The detention center is the largest taxpayer in the county, said Adams County Administrator Joe Murray. The facility generates more than $1.8 million in real and personal property taxes that help fund the county and the school district. ICE, which started placing detainees at Adams in June, promised to pay the county 50 cents per detainee per day, which could generate an additional $800,000 a year for the county.
The Jackson Parish Correctional Center in Louisiana generates about $750,000 a year for the sheriff’s office. “I’m good with the decision I made,” said Janice Fleming, an alderwoman who initially worried about the arrangement. The county announced that it plans to end its relationship with ICE by next year and started clearing out immigration detainees. The facility that housed as many as 800 ICE detainees is down to 300. County officials broker deals with neighboring counties to hold their criminal inmates to make up the difference.California passed a series of laws that go into full effect in January that aim to ban all ICE detention centers in the state. Washington state lawmakers are working on a similar bill.
Up until this year, the city held the contract with ICE to house detainees, then it contracted the work out to GEO Group. Over the past year, city leaders coordinated with GEO leadership to devise a new setup: The city would back out of its contract with ICE, then GEO would sign its own standalone contract with ICE that could run for up to 15 years.
Brasil Últimas Notícias, Brasil Manchetes
Similar News:Você também pode ler notícias semelhantes a esta que coletamos de outras fontes de notícias.
President Trump says he hasn’t ‘thought’ about Roger Stone pardonRoger Stone was convicted in November of lying to Congress to protect the president.
Consulte Mais informação »
Durham Surprises Even Allies With Statement on FBI's Trump CaseWASHINGTON -- Whether investigating charges of torture by the CIA, rolling up an organized crime network or prosecuting crooked government officials, John H. Durham, the veteran federal prosecutor named by Attorney General William Barr to investigate the origins of the Russia inquiry, burnished his reputation
Consulte Mais informação »
NYT: Trump administration policy change limits penalties for bird deathsA 2017 Trump administration policy change has severely limited any penalties groups might face for bird deaths across the United States, according to a new report published Tuesday by The New York Times.
Consulte Mais informação »
Melania Trump silently forges path through impeachmentHillary Clinton rallied Democrats to her husband's side. Pat Nixon assured reporters her husband wouldn't quit. Melania Trump is handling her husband's impeachment differently, showing no inclination to speak out publicly, dsupervilleAP reports
Consulte Mais informação »
Trump huffs and puffs about windmills, but wind power keeps growingDespite longstanding opposition from President Trump, the wind power industry in the United States continued to grow in 2019.
Consulte Mais informação »