Privatized Immigration Detention Centers to Be Focus of Federal Review

The announcement comes after the U.S. Department of Justice called for a phasing out of its contracts with private facilities this month.

The Department of Homeland Security will review whether private prison operators will continue to run immigration and customs enforcement’s immigration detention centers, the latest sign that the federal government is turning away from using these private contractors.

Reform advocates widely applauded the DOJ’s landmark decision, but immigrant rights groups questioned why the same logic shouldn’t apply to the civil immigrant detention system, which keeps tens of thousands of people locked up every night.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a division of DHS, now uses private prison groups like Corrections Corporation of America to run some of its detention facilities for migrants. “I asked that the Subcommittee consider all factors concerning ICE’s detention policy and practice, including fiscal considerations”.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Monday that he directed an internal council to determine whether the use of private immigration detention centers should be eliminated.

The company’s shareholders weren’t so sure.

Corrections Corp of America’s stock slid 9.4 percent and The GEO Group’s stock fell 6 percent immediately after news of the review broke.

“It’s past time that DHS end the practice of detaining immigrants, and this review should move it in that direction”, Jacinta Gonález, a field director with the grassroots Latinx group Mijente, wrote in an email to The Huffington Post.

Since 2001, GEO and Corrections Corp. have become increasingly reliant on federal government revenue to drive results. The two companies have been under the microscope for years by opponents of for-profit detention but have gained even more notoriety since they began housing undocumented immigrant women and children in Karnes City and Dilley.

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Private immigration detention centers are also located in Webb County, Houston, Pearsall and several other locations across the state.