Prison Industry Ties to Anti-Immigration Bills

By Elise Foley
The Washington Independent
9/17/10

The private detention industry stands to gain substantially from a growing immigrant detention system, so it’s no accident that a lobbying group partially funded by Corrections Corporation of America, or CCA, which operates some of the country’s largest private detention facilities, has had a hand in crafting both Arizona’s harsh SB 1070 immigration law and, now, the copycat bills springing up across the country.

Ties between Arizona lawmakers and CCA are not news, but Think Progress has a good run down of the key points: SB 1070 was drafted with help from the American Legislative Exchange Council, which helps the private sector write legislation for states. CCA, which is slated to receive $74 million for immigration detention centers in the 2010 fiscal year, helps fund the group.

CCA also has close, direct ties with Arizona lawmakers. Gov. Jan Brewer’s deputy chief of staff formerly worked as a lobbyist for CCA — his wife still works as a lobbyist there — and Brewer’s campaign chairman runs a lobbying firm that represents the prison corporation.

Similar ties can be found between CCA and lawmakers in other states who have pushed for anti-immigration laws, such as Tennessee and Colorado. (Read the full rundown for the states here.) And CCA routinely gives money to state lawmakers, both Democrats and Republicans, that have direct connections to the detention business, as The Texas Independent reported last month.

Why is it important? Think Progress explains how anti-immigration bills could help the prison industry make a profit:

In a presentation given earlier this year, Pershing Square Capital, a hedge fund with a large financial stake in CCA, suggested that CCA’s profitability depends on increasing numbers of immigrants sent to prison. Many of the legislators helping to earn CCA more profits with radical anti-immigrant bills mirroring SB1070 have been recipients of private prison industry cash or have worked closely with the CCA-funded ALEC organization.

Some have questioned the way CCA runs detention centers, particularly after a CCA guard was charged last month with groping immigrant detainees on their way to deportation. CCA was criticized after the incident for breaking rules by allowing male detention officers to be alone with female detainees.

http://washingtonindependent.com/97747/prison-industry-ties-to-anti-immigration-bills

Plan will help to deport Lee County's jailed illegal immigrants

Already in SW Florida, plan to be in effect here by 2012
By Chris Umpierre
cumpierre@news-press.com
June 14, 2009

Illegal immigrants with criminal records booked into the Lee County Jail could be identified for deportation at a higher rate thanks to a new federal program being expanded by the Obama administration.

The program - which began as a pilot effort in October and operates in 50 U.S. counties, including Collier and Charlotte - will expand to Lee and all U.S. jails by 2012.

The Secure Communities program checks the immigration status of every person booked into local jails by matching inmates' fingerprints to federal immigration databases. While computerized immigration checks are run in federal and state prisons, local jails lack the time and resources to screen all inmates.

Based on the pilot program, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement estimates that if fingerprints from all 14 million bookings in local jails each year were screened, about 1.4 million criminal aliens would be found. That would be about 10 times the 117,000 criminal illegal immigrants ICE deported last year.

"Right now, when we book someone in jail we have no way to determine their immigration status unless they're a self-proclaimed alien," said Lee County Capt. Tom Eberhardt, whose agency recently met with ICE to discuss the Secure Communities program. "What (ICE) is finding out is that this is an extra tool to pick out (criminal illegal immigrants) in a quicker way."

Eberhardt, who oversees Lee's jail operations, said Lee sends ICE biographical information - not fingerprints - if an inmate admits to being foreign born during booking. ICE could take days to reply, by which time some detainees had been released.

Secure Communities' finger-print database, in contrast, notifies local jails of positive immigration matches with the Department of Homeland Security database within an hour, Navas said.

ICE estimates the number of incarcerated criminal aliens in the U.S. at between 300,000 and 450,000 people.

Eberhardt declined to estimate how many illegal immigrants are being housed in Lee's jail, but he did say that ICE typically places detainers on nine to 20 of its inmates each day.

ICE spokesman Richard Rocha said his agency will give priority to deporting the most dangerous offenders: national security risks or those convicted of violent crimes such kidnapping and murder.

"What people need to understand is this program is geared to helping ICE prioritize the most egregious alien criminals so those individuals are prosecuted first and not released back to our communities," Rocha said.

Program positives

Supporters of the program say that Secure Communities would not only make communities safer but that it would save counties thousands of dollars in housing inmates that legally shouldn't be here.

"Anything we can do to get illegal aliens out of jails is for the better," said state Rep. Trudi Williams, a Fort Myers Republican who sponsored a bill similar to the Secure Communities program last year. The bill died in a committee on state affairs.

"Jails are so expensive to begin with. If you fill them with illegals who shouldn't be here in the first place, it gets even more expensive."

According to the Lee County Sheriff's Office, it costs $27,375 a year to house and feed an inmate.

Secure Communities flagged nearly 1,000 illegal immigrants being held by authorities from January to April, ICE said.

The illegal status of those people "would have otherwise remained undetected," ICE said.

Racial profiling?

Victor Valdes, the civil rights commissioner for the League of United Latin American Citizens Florida, is concerned that Secure Communities would lead to racial profiling.

"We are opposed to this because we can see (officers) stopping people riding bicycles or riding in the back of trucks to find if they are legal. They'll use any kind of excuse to arrest them," said Valdes, a Naples resident.

Valdes isn't alone. In April, a coalition of immigrant rights groups wrote to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and told her that the program "creates an incentive for police to arrest people on pretextual or minor crimes so that their immigration status can be checked."

Immigration officials say universal checks will reduce allegations of bias.

"The fingerprints of all persons arrested and booked will be processed through the system, regardless of race, nationality or ethnicity," David Venturella, the executive director for Secure Communities, said.

Collier experience

Collier County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Michelle Batten said it was too early to say how successful Secure Communities has been for her agency. Collier started running the program in mid-February, Batten said.

Collier is one of nine test agencies in Florida doing the program. The other counties are St. Johns, Clay, Duval, Miami-Dade, Marion, Hillsborough, Charlotte and St. Lucie.

"Secure Communities is something every law enforcement agency should be doing," Batten said. "We're more than happy to be participating."

ICE didn't respond to a request for the number of illegal criminal immigrants who were detained for deportation hearings in Collier since the program began.

Fort Myers immigration attorney Ricardo Skerrett said Secure Communities will work well in Collier and other communities if the program is run like ICE indicates.

"It definitely should be the priority of the government to deport criminal aliens instead of wasting resources to do raids and deporting people who have been here for years who have no criminal record and are no threat to society," Skerrett said.

"But this is only a good idea if it's used in the right purpose and used to deport felons."

http://news-press.com/article/20090614/NEWS01/906140390

Deportation of illegal aliens - a cost-cutting measure

Deportation of illegal aliens - a cost-cutting measure
Chad Groening
OneNewsNow
January 6, 2009

An immigration reform activist supports an idea being explored by the state of Washington to deport illegal aliens who are serving time in state jails.

Governor Chris Gregoire says the move would save the Evergreen State more than $9 million over the next two years. The deportation proposal is modeled after a program in Arizona, which has saved that state more than $18.5 million since 2005. It calls for the state to come to an agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which would carry out the deportations. Illegal aliens serving time in state jails for drug or property crime convictions are eligible for deportation.

Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, says Washington is feeling the economic pinch. "Washington -- like just about every other state -- is facing deep budget deficits, and they have to find ways to trim the costs," he contends. "And one of the things that they need to do is deal with the problems of illegal immigration, especially people who are here illegally and then committing other crimes."

Mehlman says up until now Washington has really done nothing to deal with the problem of illegal immigration in the state.

"Washington is one of the very few states that gives drivers licenses to illegal aliens," he points out. "Most state benefits and services are dispensed without any regard to somebody's immigration status, so it's not surprising that illegal immigrants are flocking to Washington."

Besides Arizona, the program has also been successful in New York, which between 1995 and 2007 saved an estimated $141 million by releasing more than 1,950 illegal alien inmates to federal authorities.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Security/Default.aspx?id=371780

Gov calls for deportation of jailed illegal aliens

Gov calls for deportation of jailed illegal aliens
By MANUEL VALDES
Associated Press Writer
The Seattle Times

To save money, Gov. Chris Gregoire wants illegal aliens serving time in state prisons deported.

Her proposal estimates that deporting illegal aliens - who are serving or would serve time for drug or property crime convictions - will save the state more than $9 million in the next two-year budget.

The state faces a $5.7 billion budget deficit over the next 2 1/2 years, and Gregoire has proposed a no new-taxes budget proposal laden with cuts, including about $200 million from the Department of Corrections, the attorney general's office, and other public safety programs.

The deportation proposal is modeled after a program in Arizona that has saved the state more than $18.5 million since 2005, said Eldon Vail, secretary of the Washington Department of Corrections.

"It's not an ideal choice, if revenue was there, I'd say have them do their time," Vail said. "Is justice better served? It's a tough question to wrestle with when you don't have resources."

The proposal would call for the state to come to an agreement with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, which would carry out the deportations. In Washington, there are about 350 prisoners who would be eligible to be transferred to ICE. On average, it costs the state $90 a day to imprison an inmate, Vail said.

It also includes allowing state workers to act as immigration agents in some instances, assisting ICE in processing illegal aliens under a version of the so-called 287(g) agreements, which are contentious among immigrant advocates.

"Generally, we are always concerned with any attempt by local, state officials to try to enforce immigration law," said Jorge Baron, executive director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, a legal aid organization for immigrants.

"It's a field of law that's very complex. In our experience, any time local, state agencies get involved, it leads to problems," Baron said.

Baron said people, even with criminal convictions, can still be eligible for citizenship under U.S. law in some cases, and others can qualify for asylum.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008574652_apwagregoiredeportations.html

Gwinnett makes push for inmate deportations

Gwinnett makes push for inmate deportations
By Staff
Access North Georgia
January 1, 2009

LAWRENCEVILLE - There are hundreds of illegal immigrants in the Gwinnett County jail, and starting next month, the county will begin the push to have them deported.

Published reports say that starting January 12, county law enforcement along with federal immigration agents will begin canvassing the county jail. Their goal: to identify the illegal inmates and get them out of the country.

So far in 2008, over 14,000 foreign nationals have been booked at the Gwinnett County jail, but it is unknown how many were illegal. Gwinnett projects it may deport between 4,000 and 6,000 illegal inmates.

Hall County already participates in the inmate ID program, known as 287(g).

http://www.accessnorthga.com/detail.php?n=216426