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!
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Al Jazeera's Faultlines Punishment and Profits-Immigration Detention
Please check out the Al Jazeera Faultines Episode on detention for profit. Although Josh Rushing recorded hours of video in Southwest Ranches, they did not make it into the segment. However, very interesting footage of the GEO run Broward Transitional Center in Deerfield Beach did make it. Deefield Beach is in Broward County, so our County Commissioners are very comfortable with private run immigrant prisons.
This expose provides a very powerful overview of the forces we are dealing with in terms of ICE, Prison Inc., and immigration itself. Please click below to see the episode:
Please note a number of contradictions in this video compared to what the SWR residents reported after their trip to the CCA Houston Processing Center. The two major differences are the claim by the residents that the detainees were given access to lawyers if they wanted them and the Al Jazeera clip which says that is not true.
Also, the residents originally reported that no detainee labor was used to run the Houston facility. They made a correction and said that detainee labor was used to run aspects of the food services unit. The Al Jazeera piece reports that there is use of detainee labor at a sub minimum wage rate and indicates that it is not voluntary as one of the detainees reported that GEO employees told the detainees that if they didn't work to distribute the food, then nobody would eat.
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Please note a number of contradictions in this video compared to what the SWR residents reported after their trip to the CCA Houston Processing Center. The two major differences are the claim by the residents that the detainees were given access to lawyers if they wanted them and the Al Jazeera clip which says that is not true.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the residents originally reported that no detainee labor was used to run the Houston facility. They made a correction and said that detainee labor was used to run aspects of the food services unit. The Al Jazeera piece reports that there is use of detainee labor at a sub minimum wage rate and indicates that it is not voluntary as one of the detainees reported that GEO employees told the detainees that if they didn't work to distribute the food, then nobody would eat.