Plan to open California’s largest immigration jail sparks outrage | California
Plans to open a huge federal immigration transformation center in a California desert community have aroused indignation among the defense groups that argue that it will have a “long -term cost” and “fuel damage”.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) joined forces with Corecivic, a private prison entrepreneur who operates several facilities in California, to transform a prison at 2,500 beds in California City into the largest detention center for state immigrants.
The site, built by Corecivic in 1999 as a federal prison, experienced a state prison from 2013 to March 2024. This year, while the administration of Donald Trump sought to considerably increase the capacity for detention within the framework of its repression against immigration, the company received $ 10 million in initial funding in the context of a six -month contract, reported the Los Angeles Times.
A new panel was placed outside the establishment and Corecivic listed two dozen jobs for the site on its website, including psychologists, nurses and maintenance workers.
Development has been fueled about certain residents and defense groups in southern California. This week, people have excited a meeting of the municipal council to express their feelings in California City, a desert community far from 14,000 people with historically high unemployment and poverty rates and limited economic opportunities. The problem was not on the agenda, but people traveled to Los Angeles to express the opposition.
The Dolores Huerta Foundation shared a letter with the Council urging the community to “Make your voice heard and refuse to be an accomplice of a system built on incarceration, dehumanization and the benefit of suffering.”
“We urge you not to confuse short -term jobs for long -term economic health. California City deserves a real investment – in housing, health care, education and vocational training – not an establishment that only benefits when people are detained, dehumanized and separated from their family, “said Camila Chávez, executive director of the Foundation.
“ICE detention centers do not exist in isolation. Each bed built becomes justified by more raids, more deportations and more broken families. The expanded detention in California City directly feeds this harm. “
Most of the people present have spoken in opposition to the project, reported Kero 23ABC, although John Fischer, a resident of California City, argued that the site had already been used as an ice installation and considerably stimulated the local economy.
“What most people do not know is that the establishment here started like an ice prison and it was very good for this city. It has brought jobs to the economy. It brought other companies in the economy,” he said at the point of sale. “Why do people support these illegal criminal extraterrestrials and allow them to stay here, which costs us valuable taxes?”
The city mayor, Marquette Hawkins, told the media that he had recently visited the facilities and underlined the city’s desire to monitor.
“From an economic point of view, I am told that this has advantages there,” he told Californian of Bakersfield. “However, we understand that 40% of our residents are Latinos. We want to make sure that there is equity there. We talked about surveillance and my office having the capacity to do so.”
Hawkins encouraged people to continue to share their perspectives on installation during municipal council meetings.
