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View Full Version : New immigration detention centers in Midwest proposed




Swordsmyth
05-13-2018, 02:27 AM
Companies and local governments have proposed building new immigration detention centers in Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois and Indiana, responding to a request from Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials stepping up arrests in the center of the country.
The proposals, most by for-profit corrections contractors, were submitted to ICE after it put out a request in October for detention sites near Chicago, Detroit, Salt Lake City and St. Paul, Minnesota. ICE disclosed the proposals in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by the National Immigrant Justice Center, which provided the information to The Associated Press.
The proposals, all preliminary, include one to build a 640-bed detention center in Pine Island, Minnesota, not far from Rochester, submitted by Management & Training Corp. and another by GEO Group for an 800-bed facility in rural Newton County, Indiana, about 65 miles south of Chicago.
CoreCivic Inc. proposed reopening the vacant Prairie Correctional Facility in Appleton, Minnesota, to supply ICE with up to 600 beds, and expanding a detention center in Pahrump, Nevada, to add space for 604 immigrant detainees.
ICE pays private companies to hold about two-thirds of those detained for being in the country illegally, with the largest part of that business contracted to CoreCivic and GEO.
In addition to the proposals by companies, local governments have submitted plans. Calhoun County, Michigan, proposed building a dedicated immigrant detention facility with up to 300 beds at the county jail, in addition to 250 beds already under contract to ICE. Sherburne County, Minnesota, offered space for 300 detainees in its jail, with new construction possible to hold 200 others. Kankakee County already under contract to house 105 detainees, offered space for nearly 100 more and said it could complete construction of an annex to house 300 others. There is an active ICE detention center in Kenosha County, Wisconsin.
Some of the proposals submitted to ICE include several that have already gained attention. They include a CoreCivic proposal to build a detention center in Elkhart County, Indiana, that was withdrawn earlier this year in the face of local opposition, and proposals by MTC for facilities in Evanston, Wyoming, and Hopkins Park, Illinois.
It is not clear if or when ICE will move forward with contracts for additional detention centers. Agency officials did not respond to a request for comment from the AP.

More at: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/nationworld/ct-immigration-detention-center-illinois-20180512-story.html