As immigrations sweeps overwhelm detention systems, some private companies look to benefit

Other deportation problems are on the rise as ICE detention centers are overwhelmed by the large new numbers of illegals being arrested. Immigrants are often detained by ICE for months longer than they should because of a detention and deportation system beset by waste and dysfunction, reports the Washington Post.

According to the Washington Post:

Federal officials regularly misplace files or fail to bring detainees to court hearings, resulting in needless additional jail time at taxpayer expense.

During recent court proceedings before an immigration judge, in more than half the cases the government was missing detainee files, did not know where detainees were being held or failed to bring a detainee to a facility with proper videoconferencing equipment.
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Legal advocates say the system is rife with errors as it grows more clogged. In records gathered this summer by the District-based CAIR Coalition, which provides legal services to immigrants in Virginia jails, government prosecutors came to court without detainees' files in 60 of 162 cases. In 81 cases, ICE failed to bring the detainee to his or her mandatory court hearing.

Handwritten letters from detainees seeking help from immigrant advocacy groups, obtained by The Washington Post, relate tales of lost and inaccurate records and detainees' inability to get even the simplest information about their case status.
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For detainees, hiring a lawyer is the best way to avoid falling through the cracks. But for those who cannot afford one, ICE is not obligated to provide legal counsel. With little chance of contacting an ICE case officer, advocates say, detainees are often left in jail for months, awaiting a flight or bus ride to their native countries.

With more sweeps, space is becoming a large issue. The larger detention population may in fact begin to feed the expansion of for-profit detention facilities, much in the same way the jump in the U.S. prison population fed the private-prison boom of the last decade.

The Washington Post reports that ICE officials are now making plans to create the largest immigration detention facility in the mid-Atlantic region in Farmville, Virginia. The $21 million project will also be a profit-making venture for many private individuals who plan to reap massive benefits.

 

As the Washington Post reported:

The 1,040-bed facility will be unique not only because it will dwarf many of Virginia's jails but also because it is a private venture aimed at capitalizing on the massive influx of detainees into the [ICE] system over the past year. A small group of Richmond investors looks to reap millions of dollars in profit by building what has been described as the "mid-Atlantic hub" for ICE operations in a town just three hours south of the nation's capital.
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Although ICE has not guaranteed that even a single detainee will be sent to the facility, the investors plan to break ground Oct. 15 and believe they will have the facility filled to 85 percent of capacity a year from now as part of a contract between the town and ICE. There is room to expand the detention center to 2,500 beds.

The facility is being built and run by a private subcontractor, and it will be a huge boon for the private investors, who have secured as part of the ICE contract a rate of almost $63 per detainee per day -- that means that if the estimated 322,000 detainee days are achieved each year, the company could gross $20 million in federal tax dollars annually, according to the Washington Post.