Meanwhile, private prison giant CoreCivic is garnering attention for its announcement that it will reopen an immigration detention center in Leavenworth, Kansas. Yet this facility has remained closed since 2021 when the Biden administration took office. Rogers facility has a disputed history. Over the years, it’s been a home for immigrants, reform school for teenage boys, and a prison for out-of-state incarcerated people. Given these conditions, concerns about the center’s conditions aren’t new. When the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) came out with their report a few years back detailing widespread safety and human rights violations,
The ACLU condemned the Leavenworth facility after documenting a history of violence, including knife attacks and suicides. They were calling attention to the many complaints regarding the deplorable living conditions in the facility. The claims represent that there was limited access to food. They cite inadequate access to legal counsel and family, lack of medical care, and rare access to personal hygiene. Eunice Cho, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU’s National Prison Project, noted her shock. She’s very apprehensive about reopening some facilities with a long record of dangerous conditions.
“This is a continuing pattern of the Trump administration’s willingness to knowingly place immigrants in detention facilities already well-known for having dangerous conditions,” – Eunice Cho.
Supplementing the Leavenworth center, CoreCivic recently reopened a second family detention center in Dilley, Texas. In the meantime, Geo Group has made moves to reopen the defunct North Lake correctional facility in rural Lake County, Michigan. This shelter has the capacity to house 1,800 people. Consequently, it makes for the largest immigration detention center in the Midwest. Geo Group has in recent months reopened the Delaney Hall facility in Newark, New Jersey, exclusively for immigration detainees.
Rather than respond to this crisis with compassion, the U.S. government is moving to reopen at least five detention facilities and prisons. These facilities had previously closed over safety concerns. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is greatly increasing its detention endeavors to promote mass deportations by stepping up the Trump administration’s mass deportation. They’re reopening shut down prisons and teaming up with the private prison industry to get it done.
Local communities have raised an enormous local outcry about the conversion of these facilities to immigration detention. Critics have expressed concerns, including the possibility of human rights abuses and lack of sufficient resources to care for detainees. Corene Kendrick, a staff attorney with ACLU, said that there’s no real consideration put into these proposals.
“I don’t know if we can call it a ‘proposal’, because that implies actual thought was put into it,” – Corene Kendrick.
Additional alarms have been raised about the state of reopened facilities. For too long, advocacy groups have repeatedly exposed these harms including the presence of mold, asbestos, systemic abuse. Eunice Cho sounded the alarm on the conditions that people face in these centers. Consequently, people are forced to give up on their deserving claims for relief.
“They’re putting people in facilities where the conditions are so dire … that people simply give up their valid claims of relief to stay in the United States,” – Eunice Cho.
Similarly, Ryan Gustin with CoreCivic, which is responsible for the operations in Leavenworth, defended their practices. He credited previous difficulties to understaffing—an issue that he said has become more acute during the pandemic. He further stated that CoreCivic does not cut corners on care or training in its facilities.
“At any of our facilities, including MRRC, we don’t cut corners on care, staff or training, which meets, and in many cases exceeds, our government partners’ standards,” – Ryan Gustin.
Gustin noted great public enthusiasm for job openings from the reopening of the Leavenworth facility. It was highly competitive as nearly 1,400 applicants competed for only 300 slots!
California legislators continue to fight against the reopening of detention centers. They develop the political will to shut down ICE detention centers that are allowed to operate within their jurisdiction. At this time, there are no ICE jails located in California north of Bakersfield in the Central Valley.
In addition to this local opposition, higher-ups have been speaking out against these moves. Mayor Ras Baraka in Newark, NJ speaks out against what he sees as a trend of US presidents purposely breaking laws related to immigration detention and deportation.
“They are following the pattern of the president … who believes that he can just do what he wants to do and obscure the laws,” – Ras Baraka.
Critics say these moves reveal a more sinister agenda. They think it’s a highly politicized effort directed by backers of sanctuary cities and open borders that might be their rallying cries. Cruz’s Christopher Ferreira called this effort “another unfortunate example” of that new political landscape.
As negotiations continue around these expansions, neighborhood residents, public health advocates and teachers are still worried about the effects of reopening these facilities. Advocates still strongly push for more transparency in oversight. They agree on the need to protect human rights in immigration detention centers across the country.
“When people realize what is happening in these facilities, it’s not something they want to see up close,” – Eunice Cho.
Planning for Alcatraz is currently under the jurisdiction of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BoP). What they’re currently looking at, what the site needs, and how they might proceed after Trump’s misguided proposal to reopen the historic site to house immigration detainees. As critics such as Corene Kendrick have pointed out, this notion is a fantasy.
“It’s completely far-fetched and preposterous, and it would be impossible to reopen those ancient, crumbling buildings as anything resembling a functioning prison,” – Corene Kendrick.