Over 60 students and activists from all over the country participated in an educational webinar on Thursday that focused on ending immigration detention in California.
Jehan Laner Romero, an advocate for immigrants rights with the Detention Watch Network, said, “We have mothers, women, fathers, grandparents in [detention] centers… as advocates it’s been pretty horrible to see,” Romero said.
“Detention [centers] are inhumane, arbitrary, and deadly,” activist and Detention Watch Network member Marcela claimed. Marcela did not provide her last name, presumably for privacy reasons.
In October of 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 32 (AB32) into law, effectively banning new contracts for private prisons and immigrant detention centers. This led to a lawsuit from private prison corporation GEO Group claiming that the bill is unconstitutional.
The federal government filed a separate lawsuit claiming they should receive immunity from the California law. Oral arguments for the case will be heard by the 9th Circuit on June 7.
She discussed the importance of AB32 being withheld at a time where immigrants desperately need protection from harsh treatments in these facilities at the hands of ICE.
According to the Detention Watch Network’s research, there are currently over 200 immigrant detention centers in the US. Together, they house over 500,000 immigrants a year. 95% percent of whom are asylum seekers.
In 2020 alone, amidst the international pandemic, hundreds of beds were added to the already overpacked facilities. The death toll for people in ICE custody in 2020 was the highest in 15 years. Activists allege that the reason was because ICE refused to follow proper Covid protocols including keeping spaces sanitized and having sick people quarantined.
Donald Trump’s presidency granted ICE permission to create detention centers specifically for migrant children, separating them from their families.
Long Beach mayor Robert Garcia was recently criticized for his decision to convert the city’s convention center into a facility for migrant children. Though Garcia hoped that it would be seen as a helpful gesture, activists believe he’s part of the problem.
What the protestors want is simple, release the children to their families and grant them immediate refugee status.
The issue was presented that these detention centers are billion dollar investments for private prison corporations who run them. Geo Group uses their monetary leverage as a way to force their hand, especially when it comes to small towns.
Stevevonna Evans, city councilwoman from Adelanto, California spoke about how GEO provides her city’s law enforcement department 5 million dollars a year in donations in order to gain support from the public to keep the Adelanto detention center in their city.
“If we want to displace these institutions we have to figure out how to fund it,” said Evans.
Essentially, these immigration detention centers are too much of a financial benefit for the cities they reside in. Getting rid of these centers would mean losing out on millions of dollars in donations.
Still, there is hope on the horizon. Seven states including New York, Washington, and Illinois have pursued legislation against detention centers.
The 9th Circuit’s decision on June 7 is critical in determining what other states can expect in the fight for banning private prisons and immigration facilities.
The event was hosted by the Detention Watch Network, a grassroots coalition determined to abolish immigration detention in the United States.
It was endorsed by the Long Beach Immigrant Rights Coalition and presented by four different speakers. They have documented the fight for closing down detention centers for good and ending the billion dollar private prison industry that operates them.
Deborah Lee, fellow member of the Detention Watch Network and the final panelist of the event, encouraged participants to demand local and national leaders to permanently close and end all contracts with private prison corporations. She also noted it is important to build strong legal support for future litigations.
Readers who would like to learn more about the fight to abolish immigrant detention facilities can visit https://www.detentionwatchnetwork.org/ to find the latest news on AB32.