Michigan governor blocks sale of former prison to private immigrant detention company
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Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has canceled the sale of a former state prison site to a for-profit private prison company that sought to reopen the property in order to detain hundreds of immigrants. The Democratic leader said she made the decision afMichigan governor blocks sale of former prison to private immigrant detention company
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has canceled the sale of a former state prison site to a for-profit private prison company that sought to reopen the property in order to detain hundreds of immigrants. The Democratic leader said she made the decision after Immigration Centers of America (ICA) wouldn’t guarantee that the prison “would not be used to detain adults who had been separated from their children or other family members.” “Because it would involve only adult civil detention,” the Detroit Free Press reports, “the 166,000-square-foot facility would house immigrants detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) who have not been charged with or convicted of criminal offenses, but instead are being held pending administrative hearing on issues such as deportation.” ICE consistently uses our tax dollars to detain and jail undocumented immigrants who shouldn’t be locked up in the first place. “ICE data shows that an average of 51% of the daily detained population in October 2018 was ‘non-criminal’ and 51% posed ‘no threat,’” immigrant rights advocacy group America’s Voice said earlier this month. Asylum-seekers should be free while they pursue their cases, but they too have been locked up in privately run prisons miles from legal assistance. Faith leaders and advocates applauded Whitmer’s move, saying that immigrants theoretically arrested in Detroit but then detained at the proposed site would have been nearly 150 miles from their families and legal help. Such a distance could have also endangered immigrants facing imminent deportation. “We applaud … Whitmer for standing up for immigrant families today, and standing against the private prison industry,” said Rev. Jack Eggleston, a board member of advocacy group Michigan United. But this may not be over just yet. Michigan Advance reports that ICA may now be seeking to build on private land, which would then be out of Whitmer’s hands, noting that “Whitmer spokeswoman Tiffany Brown said Monday she did not want to ‘speculate’ on the possibility of ICA buying private land instead.” And, surprise, ICA’s legal advisor is Dennis Muchmore, who was once chief of staff to former Gov. Rick Snyder, who began the process of selling the site to ICA. Brown said of Whitmer that “the governor believes that building more detention facilities won’t solve our immigration crisis, and she also believes that separating families doesn’t reflect our Michigan values.” Read more