A New Migration Policy: Producing Felons for Profit
Feltz, Renee
NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS report: homeland security A New Migration Policy: Producing Felons for Profit Inside an ICe detention facility in Taylor, Texas, run by CCA, the largest...
...4 A plea bargain was offered to the defendants, but it was good for only seven days...
...By March 2008 Ferguson had his eye on Operation Streamline as the next opportunity for a growth spurt in detention beds...
...the american Bar association’s Commission on immigration has said electronic monitoring “constitutes another form of detention, rather than a meaningful alternative” to it, and immigrant advocacy groups like the lutheran immigration and refugee service complain that isap operates with little transparency...
...However, the partnership Criminal prosecutions of undocumented immigrants in the last three years 2008 (projected) 59,570 2007 30,171 2006 28,000 between private prison companies and the federal government means more space can be made available for a price...
...according to its 2008 budget, the agency spends $95 per day to detain an immigrant in a facility, compared with $12 a day under isap...
...after 30 days in this intense phase, participants usually graduate to the intermediate phase, in which the bracelet is removed and the visits and phone calls are reduced...
...without documents—has never done anything to harm anyone,” Perez-Garcia reminded the judge...
...Through the day, the procession continued, ten by ten, hour after hour, the same charges, the same recitation from the magistrates, the same faces, chains and shackles, on the defendants,” Camayd-Freixas said...
...Department of Justiceandfederaljudgestosendamessagetopeople who lack the documents to live and work in the United States...
...NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2008 report: homeland security The Gentle Way of Detainment By Gabriela Reardon the growing demand in the united states for immigrantdetention beds has led to a new “virtual” form of detainment meant to save the government money...
...A similar dynamic unfolded in may when the ImmigrationandCustomsEnforcement(ICE)agency raided the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, and charged close to 300 undocumented workerstherewithfelony“ aggravatedidentitytheft,”whichcarries a mandatory minimum sentence of two years in prison for knowingly using “a means of identification of another person with the intent to commit any unlawful activity or felony...
...NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS report: homeland security A New Migration Policy: Producing Felons for Profit Inside an ICe detention facility in Taylor, Texas, run by CCA, the largest private U.S...
...But as court interpreter Erik Camayd-Freixas, who workedonthecases,observedinastatementbeforeanIowa U.S...
...The woman was given a relatively light sentence of 135 days...
...isap began in eight u.s...
...the result was a 91% appearance rate for participants, compared with 71% appearance rate for nonparticipants...
...This is almost twice the number as in fiscal year 2007.2 Many migrants charged with reentry in Laredo were arrested while trying to return to lives they had established in the United States...
...custoMs anD borDer Protection...
...Their criminal record makes them less likely to be bob DaeMMrich / the iMage works NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2008 approved for any legal path to citizenship that might be developed in the future...
...ICE agents found that only one of the 697 employees at the plant was using a Social Security number that coincided with a reported identity theft...
...only immigrants who are not subject to mandatory detention and are not considered a threat to the community or a flight risk can participate...
...They make the entire process difficult and traumatic for people, and one central piece of that is detaining families...
...For example, lirs says iCe has not shared its enrollment criteria or the indicators of success that permit participants to graduate to the less intense phases...
...it is not an alternative to detention,” rosheuvel says...
...The Department of Homeland Security solicited proposals in April for three new family detention centers that will hold as many as 600 parents and their children and double the space currently available for such detainees.8 “I look at ICE’s current strategy as ‘show no mercy,’ ” said Michelle Brane of the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children...
...But unlike isap, the program also provided participants with references to food pantries, health clinics, english-language classes, and other social-service agencies, and it did not use electronic-monitoring devices...
...Photo courtesy of u.s...
...For more coverage of this issue by Feltz and Stokely Baksh, visit www.business ofdetention.com...
...She sentenced him to 60 days in jail...
...to date, some 8,500 immigrants have participated nationwide, and almost 4,000 are currently enrolled as of this writing...
...While the majority of Streamline cases are misdemeanors heard in U.S...
...In october, many immigrants processed in the Laredo area began serving their time in a new 1,500 bed detention center on the outskirts of town...
...As a result it often allowed immigrants to remain free pending their hearing, a policy critics call “catch and release...
...Most of them look at it as if, ‘I’m not hurting anybody...
...Almost everyone pleaded guilty...
...As a result of this merger of immigration and criminal policy, undocumented immigrants now face jail time before they are placed in detention pending their immigration hearing in civil court...
...After their conviction they are turned over to the U.S...
...Despite international criticism, even children are included in plans to expand detention...
...His children are still there, and so is his job...
...The resulting surge in prosecutions is staggering: The U.S...
...according to oMB watch, which tracks federal spending, iCe has signed contracts with Bi for almost $40 million for services since the program began...
...So keep that in mind, and stay home...
...Occasionally, as though to break the monotony, one would dare to speak for the others and beg to be deported quickly so that they could feed their families back home...
...That will be a misdemeanor, requiring somewhere between 15 and 30 days of detention . . . someone who [has] then committed misdemeanor will face a felony charge, which could lead to six months to two years of detention or incarceration...
...First-time offenders often receive time served, and those convictedofreentryfaceupto180daysinjaildependingon their criminal history and prior apprehensions...
...It seems unlikely that a change in administration will decrease the demand for detention beds from ICE and the U.S...
...citizens,whoappearedwithshacklesaroundher wrists and ankles before Federal District Judge Micaela Alvarez...
...Prosecution for “fraud and misuse of visas and permits” has increased by 223% since last year.5 “It is no secret that the Postville ICE raid was a pilot operation, to be replicated elsewhere, with kinks ironed NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS report: homeland security out after lessons learned,” Camayd-Freixas said...
...the judge asked each one individually...
...instead, they got outsourced services and ankle bracelets...
...They faced criminal charges for illegally entering the United States...
...We determined there is a possibility that there may be a need for the facilities as described, and issued the Request for Proposal,” Cullen said in a letter to the commission...
...The only thing I want to do is return to support my family,” said one man who had spent 13 years living in Dallas...
...In 2005, after companies like CCA and Geo Group had been contracted to provide detention facilities, the policy shifted to “catch and return...
...They clasped their hands behind their back, furrowed their brows, and listened intently as the judge explained that they were charged with a misdemeanor crime and faced up to six months in jail...
...It required the workers to waive theirrighttoanimmigrationhearingandagreetoimmediate deportation pending completion of their prison sentence...
...Despite the introduction of jail time for illegally crossing, there is a strong incentive for immigrants to plea guilty...
...DePartMent of Justice...
...Public defenders can also ask the judge to sideline the cases of clients who want to pursue an immigration claim that would allow them to legally remain in the country, “but it might mean thatpersonstaysincustodyforaslongasittakes to investigate it,” Perez-Garcia said...
...Magistrate Judge Adriana Arce-Flores, as a group of men and women shuffled into her courtroom, some of them with dirt still caked on their Tshirts and tennis shoes from their journey across the border...
...The shift in policy means almost every immigrant arrested where the program is in place now faces prosecution on one of these charges...
...Bi, which controls more than half of the electronic-monitoring industry, manufac tures the gps-monitoring ankle bracelets and radio frequency receivers used in the program...
...Brane argues that private-facility standards are based almost wholly on adult correctional standards and that families should instead be held in a residential setting...
...Anyone who fights their charges faces months in detention while their case is handled and more time if convicted at trial...
...We’ve never seen the wind at our back like it is today,” CCA’s president and CEO, John D. Ferguson, said during a May 2006 conference call with investors, referring to the company’s $1.3 billion in revenue that year...
...The Laredo Public Defender’s office devotes three lawyerstohandletheheavyloadofmisdemeanor illegal-entrycases.“Weusedtogothroughpeaks and valleys,” said Supervisory Assistant Attorney Marissa Perez-Garcia of the Laredo office, referring to the number of illegal-reentry cases her office handles...
...What I am most encouraged about is, everything we are hearing says 33,000 is still not enough...
...Court-appointed counsel is crucial for immigrants facing felony reentry convictions, such as a mother of two children, both of them U.S...
...1 Before Streamline, prosecutors reserved these charges for the worst offenders...
...the final stage involves still fewer visits and phone calls, and usually continues until the immigrant is deported...
...Consequently, few detention beds are emptied by isap, undermining the program’s anticipated cost-savings effect...
...isap is run by Behavioral interventions (Bi), a Boulder-based company with years of experience administering state and local home-arrest and felon-reintegration programs nationwide, to run isap...
...District Court...
...the intensive supervision appearance program (isap), launched in 2004 as an alternative to detainment, offers some undocumented immigrants the option to be released from detention after they agree to a series of strict rules, including a 12-hour home curfew, three face-to-face meetings per week with their caseworker, and unannounced telephone calls and visits...
...Most of the defendants arrested at Agriprocessors are serving their time in federal detention centers in Florida and Louisiana...
...This continued for the rest of the morning, yielding about 100 misdemeanor convictions...
...When he told his story to the judge, her response was one of zero tolerance...
...Robillard...
...This is someone who—besides from working in the U.S...
...like isap, the aap required frequent face-to-face meetings, telephone calls, and home visits, and put participants in touch with free or low-cost lawyers...
...The company’s contract renewal rate is almost 95%, and any cost savings it may reap are kept for the company, not passed on to the taxpayers...
...since the government’s 2003 launching of operation endgame, whose mission is to deport all deportable immigrants by 2012, the demand for beds has ballooned...
...Theintentnowistodetaineveryonethat’sapprehended at the border and charge them initially with something called ‘entry without inspection,’ ” Ferguson explained to investors...
...If something happens in the future, they’ll have that record and that would affect their chances,” Rodriguez said...
...Several of its other contracts contain “take or pay” clauses that guarantee a certain amount of revenue regardless of occupancy rates, as well as periodic rate increases...
...When you have all the facts...
...we were successful in showing we could get good results without using [them],” root says...
...Border Patrol...
...Tellez believes the surge in prosecutions will continue to grow but that authorities will become overwhelmed when they run out of detention space...
...How do you plead...
...In fact, CCA’s confidence in future demand is so great that the company is already slated to develop 10,700 new beds by 2009...
...Culpable,” they replied, echoed by a “guilty” from the interpreter...
...Border Patrol officials emphasize that the convictions will go on the immigrant’s criminal record and be used to determine if he or she is eligible for any legal path to citizenship that becomes available...
...We see that the budget supports the detention population of 33,000 inmate detainee beds—that’s up from 27,500 the previous year and quite above what the president’s original budget was,” Ferguson said...
...Streamline is based on two main misdemeanor charges— “entry of an alien at improper time or place” and “reentry of a deported alien...
...This article is a reworked version of “Immigrants Fight Restrictions at Home,” which appeared in the September 8 addition of City limits weekly (www.citylimits.org...
...immigration authorities have been working since the late1990s to strike a balance between the escalating demand for detention space and the pressure to lower costs...
...They stopped to stand shoulder to shoulder before her in rows of 12...
...Even if a compromise is reached on immigration reform, “there are still going to be folks that are going to be defined as needing to be detained,” CCA’s Ferguson observed while speaking with investors in June, “and you will also continue to have folks who will still try to enter the United States, and they will not be getting any benefits from the new legislation...
...I’m just trying to reunite with my family,’ ” explained Jose Tellez, a longtime immigration attorney in Laredo...
...Geo Group, the nation’s second-largest private prison company, built the facility for the U.S...
...cities to help cut down on costs (it now operates in 12 cities...
...Nearly 80% of CCA’s immigrant inmates come from ICE, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S...
...After they raised their right hands to be sworn in, a Spanish interpreter had to instruct them to lower them...
...Marshals Service.6Inall,CCAfacilitieshousemorethan halfoftheimmigrantscurrentlydetainedinprivatefacilities...
...Next time, ‘fast-tracking’ will be even more relentless...
...At the federal level there is such a demand for beds, and private operators are able to do it cheaper and build the facility at half the cost of the federal government because they don’t have to go through procurement red tape...
...Even if your daughters are here, you really should stay home,” Judge Arce-Flores told him...
...Certainly, the forces of supply and demand are working in the company’s favor,” observed Bank of America analyst T.C...
...Renee Feltz is a multimedia investigative journalist based in New York City...
...Unlike immigrants facing civil charges, defendants in a criminal case have a right to court-appointed counsel...
...Federal law enforcement agencies began opera tion Streamline in the Del Rio, Texas border sector in late 2005...
...It is less than a mile away from a 480-bed USMS detention center owned and operated by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA...
...Now it’s just peaks all the time...
...oren root, who served as director of the aap, says he and his team of researchers considered using electronic monitoring for the ins-sponsored monitoring program but opted not to...
...Marshals Service working in collaboration with Border Patrol agents...
...Those convicted of misdemeanors are barred report: homeland security for five years...
...Judge Arce-Flores paused to issue a stern warning before she sentenced each group of newly minted criminals...
...in 1997, the defunct immigration and naturalization services contracted the new York City–based vera institute of Justice to develop an alternative program that could reduce the reliance on detention space while ensuring immigrants’ appearance in court...
...Since then, the program has expanded to Laredo, the Rio Grande Valley, and parts of the Arizona border.“Ithasbecomestandardoperatingprocedureforus,” saidEugenioRodriguezJr.,spokesmanfortheLaredoSector of the U.S...
...Since we’re not immigrationlawyers, allwecandoissayyoumaywanttogetthat followed up on by someone else...
...In March, reentry of a deported alien accounted for more than the other top nine charges combined in the district of Laredo.3 Immigrants convicted of felony reentry face up to 20 years in prison and are permanently barred from reentering the country...
...Her organization has called on ICE to halt the growth of family detention, citing lawsuits that allege conditions in facilities like CCA’s T. Don Hutto Residential Center, where immigrant families are held, violate minimum standards of care for minors in federal custody...
...the notion of alternatives to detention is that people will be released into the community and connected with local agencies, not placed in nonstop monitoring...
...A more accurate charge of possessing false Social Security numbers carries a lesser penalty...
...About as many people would be convicted each day for the rest of the week...
...Once the rows were three deep, a guard directed another dozen to an area normally reserved for members of the jury...
...We’ve never seen the wind behind our back like it is today,” the company’s Ceo told investors in 2006...
...kerry sherlock talbot, the associate director of advocacy, Family and due process for the american immigration lawyers’ association, recalls that when the government first proposed the program, many nonprofit service providers supported it, hoping it would create grant programs for community agencies to staff caseworkers who would provide legal information and encourage court appearances, and perhaps even run group homes as an alternative to penal detention...
...CCA has had its eye on privatizing the entire immigrant detention system since 2004, when it proposed taking over detention operations and building even more facilities in anticipation of rising demand...
...When the Bush administration first began its crackdown on immigrants in 2003, it lacked enough prison space to illustration by renee feltz...
...nowimmigrationlawyersandadvocatessayiCeisfrequently offering the program to people who have already paid a bond or otherwise been released on their own recognizance...
...isap has so far garnered 99% overall appearance rates and a 94% rate for final-removal hearings, according to iCe...
...Herwarningreflectedimmigrationpolicyinthe era of Homeland Security: Immigration officials have teamed up with the U.S...
...We might need to squeeze,” said U.S...
...we decided to try to see whether a combination of supervision and incentives, such as referrals to the community, could be used without using electronic monitoring...
...When she outlined her concerns in a letter, ICE policy director Susan Cullen replied that the agency routinely evaluates its needs for family detention space, its overall bed space needs, and the appropriateness of each facility regarding its intended use...
...individual officers appear to have a lot of discretion in each case, and decisions on individual cases sometimes appear arbitrary...
...I want to go back to my home as soon as possible...
...Next time you’re not going to get the same break,” she said...
...Now a yearly average of about 300,000 immigrants are detained until being deported.7 “We’re here to take care of the product they deliver to us,” said Michael Davis, who doubles as the chaplain and spokesman for CCA’s Houston Processing Center...
...Magistrate Court, the program is generating a dramatic increase in the number of felony cases heard in U.S...
...NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS report: homeland security detain those issued deportation orders...
...This raises questions of fairness about how prosecutors gain access to information for their cases...
...iCe’s bed capacity has grown from 20,800 in 2006 to a projected 33,000 for 2009...
...Part of the reason for the confusion is that immigrants are first processed by civil immigration authorities, not by criminal courts...
...If they return before then, prosecutors can pursue the felony charge...
...Marshals Service in anticipation of increased demand for space as a result of Operation Streamline...
...It’s not a crime of violence...
...Many of the immigrants may still not realize they have committed a crime...
...CCA relies on contracts with ICE and the U.S.MarshalsServiceforabout40%ofitstotalrevenue.Five of the company’s lucrative contracts to detain immigrants have no end date...
...they are viewing it as an add-on, to be applied to people who are already out,” sherlock talbot says...
...District Court: “By handing down the inflated charge of aggravated identity theft . . . the government forced the defendants into pleading guilty to the lesser charge and accepting five months in jail...
...Marshals Service to serve their prison sentence...
...Janis rosheuvel, an organizer with new York City’s Families for Freedom, a group that fights family separation caused by deportation, says isap is just another example of the federal government’s criminalization of the deportation process, in cahoots with private industry...
...And the government tends to go with who they built with before,” said Gregg Klein, a corrections analyst with BNP Paribas, a Paris-based bank...
...the way [iCe] sees the program, it is more expensive...
...Justice Department predicts 60,000 immigrants will face charges in fiscal year 2008, mostly in border districts of Texas and Arizona...
...I want you to know that from now on, every one of you is subject to a felony for reentry,” she said...
...it is an alternative to people’s freedom of movement...
...This crackdown has been made possible by the nation’s largest private prison company, which has devoted close to half of its resources to the business of detaining immigrants...
...I’d like to apologize,” one man told Judge Arce-Flores...
...Gabriela Reardon is a freelance journalist based in New York...
...From 1997 to 2000, vera piloted the appearance assistance program (aap...
...He had five prior apprehensions...
...Later in the call, Ferguson optimistically eyed the president’s fiscal year 2009 budget...
...I’m not sneaking drugs across the border...
...If you return you’re facing a significant amount of jail time...
...During the civil procedure they’re asked for a statement,” Tellez said...
...prison company...
...Its competitors, Geo Group, Cornell Company, and Avalon Correctional Services, share the rest of the business, along with several other smaller companies...
...in addition, each immigrant is fitted with a gps monitoring ankle bracelet and required to install voice-recognition technology on his or her home telephone line, which allows caseworkers to confirm they are speaking to the isap participant...
...Data source: u.s...
...As Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said in a June speech: “These illegal migrants come to realize that violating the law will not simply send them back to try over again, but will require them to actually serve some short period of time in a jail or prison setting—and will brand them as having been violators of the law...
...They tell them, ‘We’re just gathering information and we don’t read you your rights until we decide to file a criminal charge.’ Well, at what point do you decide to go criminal...
...by renee Feltz Hundreds of immigrants who crossed the Rio Grande River into Texas over Labor Day weekend found themselves in a Laredo courtroom the following week...
...Investors recognize that cca’s inventory of prison beds means the company is best suited to meet a flood of demand, and by March, the company’s stock value had more than doubled since 2004, reaching $26.86...
Vol. 41 • November 2008 • No. 6
