Ponder This: Blame Trump???
Written By: Hugo Omar Aghosta
Republished By: ~X~ of TFD
Blame
Trump... But again it was the liberal-hawk administration of Obama that
oversaw this humanitarian crisis. Politics aside, housing immigrants
deemed illegal (pending hearings) is big business. 85% receive no legal
council. Only those charged with criminal offenses get a lawyer.
Recently, the Donald Wyatt Center in Rhode Island lost its contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to house 153 immigrant prisoners after the horrific death of a detainee. Center representatives publicly bemoaned the loss of $100,000 per week and quickly began looking for a way to get more prisoners. The chairman of the board for the center, Daniel Cooney, said, “Frankly, I’m looking at it like I’m running a Motel 6. I don’t care if it’s Guantanamo Bay. We want to fill the beds.” He was eventually fired in the fallout from this remark, but his candor is revealing. Immigrant prisoners are valuable commodities to local jails. This approach boosts the economies of private prison companies and municipalities but costs the federal government millions—perhaps billions—of dollars.
The sprawling immigration prison complex comprises facilities owned and operated by the Department of Homeland Security, local state city jails, and private prisons, all paid by ICE to house those deemed deportable. It is a lucrative business: ICE pays local jails approximately $95 per day per person. The average price of maintaining an immigrant prisoner is only $20 per day, and if a jail scrimps on necessities such as food and health care, it can increase its profit margin still further.
Many immigrant prisoners are legal permanent residents. More than 30,000 immigrants are detained every day—three times the number detained ten years ago. No recent immigration reform proposal is likely to address this issue; in fact, the Obama administration recently requested money from Congress to expand the Secure Communities program, initiated by George W. Bush, which is aimed at checking the immigration status of virtually every person booked into local jails. This occurs at the time of booking, so that a simple arrest can trigger a deportation. As the stories below illustrate, immigrants in prison are generally presumed deportable until they can prove otherwise.
Additional Reference & source info:
https://www.warresisters.org/win/win-summer-2009/inside-immigrant-prisons
Recently, the Donald Wyatt Center in Rhode Island lost its contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to house 153 immigrant prisoners after the horrific death of a detainee. Center representatives publicly bemoaned the loss of $100,000 per week and quickly began looking for a way to get more prisoners. The chairman of the board for the center, Daniel Cooney, said, “Frankly, I’m looking at it like I’m running a Motel 6. I don’t care if it’s Guantanamo Bay. We want to fill the beds.” He was eventually fired in the fallout from this remark, but his candor is revealing. Immigrant prisoners are valuable commodities to local jails. This approach boosts the economies of private prison companies and municipalities but costs the federal government millions—perhaps billions—of dollars.
The sprawling immigration prison complex comprises facilities owned and operated by the Department of Homeland Security, local state city jails, and private prisons, all paid by ICE to house those deemed deportable. It is a lucrative business: ICE pays local jails approximately $95 per day per person. The average price of maintaining an immigrant prisoner is only $20 per day, and if a jail scrimps on necessities such as food and health care, it can increase its profit margin still further.
Many immigrant prisoners are legal permanent residents. More than 30,000 immigrants are detained every day—three times the number detained ten years ago. No recent immigration reform proposal is likely to address this issue; in fact, the Obama administration recently requested money from Congress to expand the Secure Communities program, initiated by George W. Bush, which is aimed at checking the immigration status of virtually every person booked into local jails. This occurs at the time of booking, so that a simple arrest can trigger a deportation. As the stories below illustrate, immigrants in prison are generally presumed deportable until they can prove otherwise.
Additional Reference & source info:
https://www.warresisters.org/win/win-summer-2009/inside-immigrant-prisons
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