Inside the administration’s $1 billion deal to detain Central American asylum seekers
South Texas Family Detention Center (Dilley, Texas)
Chico Harlan of the Washington Post reports on the latest chapter of the immigration/industrial complex and immigrant detention. As Central Americans surged across the U.S. border two years ago, the Obama administration skipped the standard public bidding process and agreed to a deal that offered generous terms to Corrections Corporation of America, the nation’s largest prison company, to build a detention facility for women and children seeking asylum. The four-year, $1 billion contract has been a boon for CCA, which, in an unusual arrangement, gets the money regardless of how many people are detained at the facility. Critics say the government’s policy has been expensive but ineffective. Arrivals of Central American families at the border have continued while court rulings have forced the administration to step back from its original approach to the border surge.
KJ