Pages

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!


Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Southwest Ranches Press Release!



The Town of Southwest Ranches has released a statement regarding the cancellation of the ICE Detention Center.  In it, it blames the uncertainty of water and sewer services and the associated NEPA process that the government must have found it needed to complete before moving forward in the contracting process.  For those that haven't heard about the NEPA, it's basically an environmental study that is required when the government takes a financial action where it brings into account things like water use, public safety and other factors.

In addition, last month CCA had recently applied with the South Florida Water Management District to dig a well into the Biscayne Aquifer.  This is something I don't see the Town Council allowing to happen since the wells for the entire Town's population could be negatively affected by this rather large commercial well use of about 60 million gallons of water per year.  In addition, the letter back to CCA notes the continued "grazing land" or infamous "ag exemption" they had received for the past 12 years to avoid paying taxes on their prison parcel.  They still hold the Ag Exemption on the property even though the property appraiser says it was taken off. 

Essentially, they were not very forthcoming with the South Florida Water Management District that the permit was for a large commercial use and a prison of at least 1500 beds. Documents regarding the drilling into the aquifer can be found here.  (Application #120514-14).  The RAI letter from SFWMD to CCA can be viewed here, section 2.

According to the Town's press release, President Obama's announcement regarding a shift in DHS deportation priorities (something several members from RAID had warned the Town Council could happen) had nothing to do with it.  On Friday, June 15th the President held a press conference to discuss this change in policy stating,  
... deportation will no longer apply to immigrants who came into the country before they were 16 and are now younger than 30, have lived here for five straight years, have never been convicted of a crime or graduated from high school or got a GED.  Such immigrants will be allowed to apply for a two-year work permit that can be renewed unlimited times.  
This statement renders a new detention center unnecessary as it would pertain to approximately 800,000 undocumented immigrants and ICE released a statement saying as much.  Shortly after the President's announcement the following statement was released by ICE,
 ICE has reevaluated its need for an additional detention facility in South Florida and has decided that it will no longer pursue a facility in the Town of Southwest Ranches. We are examining our options for additional detention space in the region and will make the appropriate notifications when a decision about the way forward has been made.
You can read the Town's full press release below:



Written by: Ryann Greenberg



Posted by at
Labels: , , , ,

4 comments:

  1. AnonymousJune 19, 2012 at 8:26 PM

    Once again the Town has their "spin" and then there's the truth! Hard to decide on who lies more...Southwest Ranches politicians or CCA!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJune 21, 2012 at 9:37 AM

    No detention Center is the best answer! Lets keep CCAout of the immigration/ prison business!

    ReplyDelete
  3. SusanJune 21, 2012 at 9:47 AM

    The continued actions by CCA show they do not play well with others. They ask to drill a well into our fragile ecosystem with no regard or concern for the Everglades or our continued water shortage. if SWR thinks they had a fight on their hands this time, watch the number of angry residents that come out when they find out a private prison wants to pull millions of gallons of water out of our aquifer and potentially contaminate our wells. We are already under year round water restrictions.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousJune 21, 2012 at 8:35 PM

    Because theyre claiming ag exemption, their water usage cant exceed whatever that calls for. They dont need alot of water for a few grazing cows.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for your comments. Your comment will be posted by the moderator. Any threats of people are discouraged and as such those comments will be removed. Thank you for contributing to our conversation on the Southwest Ranches ICE/CCA Detention Center

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)