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The Town of Southwest Ranches, Corrections Corporation of American (CCA), and DHS / ICE want to build one of the largest immigration detention centers in the nation within walking distance of thousands of homes; thus, reducing the quality of our life and our community. We do not agree with the federal government privatizing our immigration detention centers throughout the nation when there is clear evidence that privatizing our prisons creates a clear public safety threat. For ICE to continue to privatize these institutions and bring this safety threat through their "secure communities Initiative" to our community is unacceptable. Depriving someone of their liberty is a non-delegable governmental function and privatizing of such a function is infecting our nation like a virus.

The Town of Southwest Ranches has now entered into it's THIRD Fire Contract within the last year now with the Town of Davie, costing taxpayers $120,000 in ramp up fees. They are now closing several roads in western Southwest Ranches charging the tax payers $80,000 for the gates. They have paid an unknown amount of money for lobbying with ICE regarding this prison. They have several lawsuits against the Town, 1- Involving Open Meeting Violations on a November 5th meeting concerning the ICE Detention Center, 2- Open Records Violations, and 3- The Town is putting together a lawsuit to sue Pembroke Pines for breach of contract because the City utilized their exit clause and cancelled for convenience their Fire/EMS contract which included water and sewer at the last minute for the CCA prison. In the contract it states that there should be no third party beneficiaries. CCA would be a third party in this instance.

CCA has also filed suit in Federal court against the City of Pembroke Pines saying they are denying them water however the City had never seen a water application. The City did file for a Declaratory Judgement in State Court but that has been put on hold until the Federal Court hears the suit from CCA.

Is ANYONE CONFUSED as to why the Pembroke Pines/Southwest Ranches Fire Agreement was cancelled? The Town Attorney Keith Poliakoff attempted to "slip" into the agreement a portion that guaranteed water for the prison at CCA's request. This is something that should have been brought up separately. CCA should have brought it forward on their own in a water application. This is sleight of hand that CCA and the Town attempted to do because they were so afraid of CCA being on the Pembroke Pines agenda.

As of June 2012, ICE put out a statement that the site selection was no longer needed due to the fact that the extra bedspace was no longer needed. READ UPDATE HERE!


Friday, December 2, 2011

Announced Advisory Council... Who does it represent?

In reality, Congresswomen Debbie Wasserman Schultz's (D-FL20) Advisory Council is to provide our HOA presidents the opportunity to ask Prison, Inc. for the BEST prison we can get.  This is as if she's misunderstood our opposition to the entire project as a demand to select the color of the curtains covering the window bars or the genus of shrub that will surround the razor-wired fences.  It's a sham and a farce.

Sam Poole (Berger Singerman lawyer hired by CCA) has announced the Advisory Council will include the HOA Presidents from the following HOAs:
  • Chapel Trail
  • Rolling Oaks
  • Sunshine Ranches
  • Green Meadows
  • Griffin 345
  • Country Estates and Trails of Pembroke Pines
  • Keystone Lake
  • Laguna Isles 


View ICE Detention Center in a larger map


Deconstructing Debbie's shameless attempt to pretend she's encouraged our officials to listen to us;  here are some of the blatant flaws:
  1. We don't want an immigrant prison. Her creation of an advisory council changes the question as to what TYPE of prison do we want.
  2. She did not establish the council to make officials listen to the resident's demands to KILL the project.
  3. Prison, Inc. has severely limited membership as HOA presidents only are on the council.
  4. Prison, Inc. has included non affected HOAs such as Sunshine Ranches who are EAST of 75 nearly 10 miles away.
  5. The Rolling Oaks, Sunshine Ranches and Green Meadows presidents support the prison and the federal tax dollars it will bring.  They are being sold a bill of goods. 
  6. Prison, Inc. probably included Chapel Trail because a Master Board member is Todd Nelson, brother of SWR Mayor Jeff Nelson.
The bottom line is that Wasserman Schultz is trying to pull a fast one. Many of these presidents have been wined and dined by Prison, Inc. and have even been given an expense paid vacation to Prison, Inc.'s Potemkin Village in Tennessee.  Debbie, what part of "We Don't Want This Prison" don't you understand??
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5 comments:

  1. AnonymousDecember 3, 2011 at 3:03 PM

    Does that blue bus on the map mean there is going to be a bus stop for this detention center at a public library/college facility? Really??

    ReplyDelete
  2. No CCA Immigrant Prison in Southwest RanchesDecember 3, 2011 at 8:45 PM

    It's the bus stop the Mayor has been touting as an advantage of situating the immigrant prison next to our homes. It's Broward County Route 23. Check out the timetable and restrictions here: http://www.broward.org/BCT/MAPSANDSCHEDULES/ROUTES/Pages/23.aspx

    It's a ridiculous proposition, yet they've put it in all their proposals that it's the way in and out for those without cars. It's almost an hour walk to the facility from there.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousDecember 4, 2011 at 7:23 PM

    It's astonishing just how little DWS knows about the whole situation! She doesn't know what and who surrounds the site, she doesn't know the amount of families adversely affected, she doesn't know that the women's prison (more than 30 yrs old) is NOT maximum security and the CCA site is not zoned maximum security!! What does she know? Oh I guess she knows how much she's making $$$ by agreeing to this prison!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousDecember 8, 2011 at 8:18 AM

    Please get your facts right. Todd Nelson didn't bother to show up for the election meeting on November 9th so he is not on the Chapel Trail Board anymore and hadn't showed up for meetings for months before that. People have been wondering if it was because he was afraid to show up for meetings after the ICE/CCA stuff came out and he was outed publicly as Jeff Nelson's brother.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousDecember 8, 2011 at 9:33 AM

    This is new information about Jeff Nelson's Brother... I wonder why he is all of a sudden not participating in this smoke and mirror's scheme.

    ReplyDelete

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