Ending Private Detention Would Turn System ‘Upside Down,’ Says Immigration Enforcement Chief
Hope has sprung eternal that, after some recent announcements, the U.S. government might get out of the business with “for profit” detention by private contractors. Well, hold on.
Roque Planas on the Huffington Post reports that Shutting down for-profit detention facilities would hurt Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s ability to do its job, agency director Sarah Saldaña said Thursday.
“It would pretty much turn our system upside down,” she said at a House Judiciary Committee hearing, “because we are almost completely contractor-run with respect to our detention facilities.”
Saldaña’s comments fly in the face of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson’s recent decision to review whether ICE should continue relying on private prison contractors to run its detention centers.
The Department of Justice announced that it would phase out most of its use of privatized prisons for long-term inmates.
KJ