President Trump is asking for $1.2 billion to add 15,000 more beds to private prisons to lock up illegal immigrants.
California detention centers have run out of space to detain immigrants, AZPM News reported May 29.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reports that detention centers for immigrants were up more than 40 percent from the past year.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has ordered his United States attorneys to prosecute and imprison illegal immigrants regardless of their circumstances.
Under the Obama administration, ICE was zeroing in on undocumented individuals who were considered dangerous, the Arizona newspaper reported.
California Bay Area immigration attorney Otis Landerholm said because of the nearly 40 percent increase in arrests and detentions, most of the California facilities to hold immigrant detainees are full. “And so, what’s the Department of Homeland Security to do? They ship my clients out to places in the middle of nowhere.”
California built many prisons because of an increase in inmate population. That increase was prompted by tough penalty laws and longer prison sentences.
Landerholm observed, “Really, in my opinion, one of the nastiest prison detention facilities in the country is the Eloy Detention Center.” It is located about an hour northwest of Tucson.
The Eloy Detention Center is privately owned by CoreCivic, previously known as Corrections Corporation of America.
CoreCivic gave half a million dollars to Donald Trump’s inaugural fund, AZPM News reported. Since Trump’s election, CoreCivic’s stock price has increased by more than 81 percent, according to public records that the newspaper cited.
Politicians work toward protection for young illegal immigrants