Tacoma SDSTacoma: Detention Center Seeks Expansion
The corporation that runs the federal immigration detention center on Tacoma’s Tideflats plans to expand the facility’s capacity by 50 percent.
When completed, the Northwest Detention Center should be able to hold up to 1,500 immigrants in federal custody.
The GEO Group, the Florida-based company that runs the detention center, has made no formal announcement. Several voicemails left with its spokesman were not returned. Calls to the Northwest Detention Center were referred to a spokeswoman with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who said the company is handling the expansion and therefore should answer all questions.
But the company has been in talks with the city manager’s office and the Tacoma Police Department, officials confirmed. They weren’t certain about the cost or timetable of expansion, but the company’s contract with the federal government for use of the Tacoma facility is set to expire in April 2009, according to the company’s Web site.
The expansion may fuel controversy over the facility, which has become a local flashpoint of the nation’s immigration debate. The detention center has been the subject of several protests in recent months, including some in downtown Tacoma.
“There’s a lot of debate of the function of the facility as it stands today,” City Manager Eric Anderson said. “Expanding that will only intensify that debate. It tends to get focused on the facility. The larger the role of the facility, the more intense the debate can get.”
Even if the city were opposed to the expansion, Anderson said, its status as essential public facility under the state’s Growth Management Act restricts Tacoma’s ability to prevent its growth.
The detention center holds immigrants detained throughout Pacific Northwest and is almost always at capacity, officials told The News Tribune in November. Many detainees enter federal custody after they’re arrested during raids or through Criminal Alien Program, in which federal officials take custody of illegal immigrants incarcerated in local or state jails or prisons.
The average stay at the detention center just over a month. An Executive Office for Immigration Review courtroom inside the facility hears the cases, and most detainees are deported to their countries of citizenship. About half of those in custody are routinely Mexican, but citizens from almost every country on earth have passed through the facility. The majority of detainees are held only for being in the country illegally.
ICE did not request the expansion of the facility, ICE spokeswoman Lorie Dankers said, and the current contract for use of the Northwest Detention Center still calls for The GEO Group to supply 1,000 beds.
The $115 million facility opened in 2004 with the ability to hold about 500 detainees, replacing a 160-bed center in Seattle. It has since expanded twice.
The company’s original contract with the government ran from April 2004-April 2005 but contained four one-year options, according to its Web site.
The GEO Group operates 67 facilities throughout the United States, Canada, South Africa, Australia and the United Kingdom. It also has plans to expand or build sites this year in Michigan, New Mexico, Texas, Mississippi and Colorado, according to a June conference call. Most of those sites are correctional facilities.
In a letter from Anderson to an engineering consulting firm working on behalf of The GEO Group, the city manager said Tacoma’s Public Works Department “no immediate issues with regards to impact on existing services” but added that company must undergo the full permitting process before expansion.
The Tacoma Police Department has met with officials from the detention center about the expansion, spokesman Mark Fulghum said.
He added that the few problems with the Northwest Detention Center have stemmed from protests.
“It’s not an issue as far as we’re concerned,” he said. “We’ve had no problems with the officials there. They’ve been great to work with.”
SCOTT FONTAINE; The News Tribune
Published: July 3rd, 2008 09:18 AM
- Add new comment
- 166 reads
Comments
A Call For Anarchist Immigration Actions july 21st
A Call For Anarchist Solidarity Actions With Immigrants Across the U.S.
Take Nationally-Coordinated Action To Show Solidarity And Fight ICE on July 21st!
We have begun the attack by spraypainting an ICE van with many anti-Migra(ICE) slogans. May our spark spread into a wildfire.
July 21st Iowa Rally: http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20080715124636259
Call To Action:
There is a problem with immigration in the U.S. The problem is that because someone was born on the other side of an artifical line on a map, they are considered "illegal," and face constant terror from the state and constant exploitation by capitalists. We consider these artificial divisions and the rights they give or take away to be unjust and inhuman in the face of globalized capitalism.
Illegal immigrants get no protections from crimes against them because it is too risky to go to the police. They are exploited by employers who pay sub-minimum wage rates, if they get paid at all. They are under constant threat of deportation and imprisonment. In short, they are disposable. They are second-class citizens in a country whose free trade policies have impoverished their homelands and forced their migrations. They are the victims of an apartheid system where one human being is not just like any other human being. Those without citizenship are treated like lesser humans.
And if they are caught, they are rounded up, deported, their families are separated, children lose their parents, and their families in their home countries lose the remittances that keep food in childrens' mouths, shoes on their feet, and their butts in school instead of having to drop out and work.
They are jailed in terrible conditions, and then they are sent back to their countries, left to fend for themselves after having their lives destroyed by a system that chews them up and spits them out when they become unnecessary.
We call for a day and night of ACTION to amplify the sickening feeling we get when we see our neighbors' families split apart. We want to see ACTIONS to counter the powerlessness we feel when we are playing soccer with our immigrant companeros and all of a sudden the game stops and everyone has to run because someone thought they saw an ICE van, and it reminds us of a scene from Nazi Germany as we stand suddenly alone in the middle of a dusty soccer field.
Anarchists across the US should use July 27th to stand up as a movement and scream "We are sick of this!" We will not stand idly by while this treatment continues, because we recognize that in the past, and possibly again in the future, we anarchists may be in the very same situation.
Anarchists have been broadly involved in the fight for freedom for non-citizens forever. From confrontations with the Minutemen, to the struggle against the ICE Detention Center in Tacoma, WA, and the actions against the privately-run ICE Detention Center in Texas, and in hundreds of other ways every day, we have acted out our solidarity.
In the refuge we provide in our homes to "illegals," in our participation in rallies for immigrants' rights across the US, when providing translation help or food or english classes to those struggling to navigate a foreign landscape with new customs and cultures to figure out, we have expressed our solidarity as fellow human beings.
Let us continue, and expand our solidarity with hyper-expolited and terrorized immigrant communities by taking action on July 21st.
Some Ideas For Possible Actions:
-Banner Hangs of Solidarity
-Protests at ICE Facilities (Detention Center List: http://www.bordc.org/threats/detention.php)
-Protests at Federal Buildings
-Protests at Employers Known To Under-Pay or Exploit Illegal Workers
-Street Theater to Show What Happens When A Family is Torn Apart by an ICE Raid
-ICE Copwatch (Use a phonebook to find ICE locally)
-Murals Dedicated to Illegal Immigrants
-Stencils saying "No ICE Zone" or "Anti-ICE Safe Space" in your neighborhood and in front of your house. (In Spanish: "Zona No ICE" or "Espacio Seguro: No Migra Aqui")
-Vandalism of ICE and DHS Property
-Breaching a Detention Center to Free Imprisoned Immigrants (In Australia and Europe this has been done!)
-Get creative and participate!
Indivdual actions can be eaily dismissed, but a co-ordinated movement taking united action on a single day sends a strong message of solidarity. Participate!
Because we know it doesn't have to be this way.
Because we have more power in our country to take action than illegal immigrants do, and we must use our privilege to exert maximum pressure against the heartless motherfuckers who carry out these inhuman policies.
Because we'd want someone to do it for us.
Because we must.
Solidarity Means Attack!
-The Illegal Anarchists
illegalanarchists@gmail.com
*Please send action reports to illegalanarchists@gmail.com and we will compile reports to amplify the effect of the actions.*
------------------
Please forward this call to people and groups who may be interested.
Please re-post everywhere.
Send your group's endorsement of this call to illegalanarchists@gmail.com