This economic divide has become existential in California City, a struggling town in the state of California, where plans are underway to open the largest immigrant detention center in the United States.
“When you talk to most residents here, they have a favorable opinion; they see the economic impact,” said Marquette Hawkins, mayor of California City, in an interview with AFP.
CoreCivic, one of the leading companies in the industry and owner of the facility, claims that the center, currently in preliminary operations, will generate approximately 500 jobs and over $2 million in tax revenue for the city.
“Many of our residents have already been hired to work at these facilities,” Hawkins added.
“Any source of income that comes to support the city’s rebuilding efforts will be viewed positively,” he continued.
However, for some, the cost is too high.
“I know we have food insecurity here; people have to travel hours to work, and they feel this will help them without realizing that it’s the most inhumane way to have a job,” said Inishia White from the Dolores Huerta Foundation.
With Trump’s anti-immigration policies clashing with California’s pro-immigration stance, the number of individuals in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reached a record high of over 60,000 in June, most without criminal convictions, according to official figures.
More than 80 percent of detainees are housed in facilities managed by the private sector under contract with ICE, according to the TRAC project at Syracuse University.
And with Washington’s guidelines to triple the average daily arrests, along with the approval of $45 billion in funding for new centers over the next four years, the industry is anticipating unprecedented growth.
“Never in the company’s 42-year history have we experienced so much activity and demand for our services as we do now,” said Damon Hininger, CEO of CoreCivic, during a May investor call.
When Trump took office in January, there were 107 operational centers. The number is now around 200.
Democratic politicians are already questioning this expansion.
“Companies that operate private prisons are profiting from human suffering,” said Congresswoman Norma Torres outside a detention center in Adelanto, a city in southern California, where there were three detainees at the beginning of the year. Six months later, the facility houses hundreds.
Torres attempted to visit the facilities operated by the also-private GEO Group but said she was denied entry due to a lack of seven-day advance notice.
“It’s dangerous, illegal, and a desperate attempt to hide the abuse hidden behind these walls,” Torres said.
“We’ve heard horrific stories of detainees being violently arrested, denied basic medical care, isolated for days, and injured without treatment,” she added.
“This is a ticking time bomb,” said Kristen Hunsberger, an attorney with the Immigration Defense Legal Center.
“Basic human needs are not being met,” said the attorney, who has also received complaints about lack of food, water, and sanitary and medical conditions.
Hunsberger, who spends hours on the road traveling from one center to another to locate her clients, also pointed out that many detainees have been denied access to legal counsel, a constitutional right in the United States.
The government and private corporations deny allegations of mistreatment.
“Claims that there is overcrowding or poor conditions at ICE facilities are categorically false,” said Tricia McLaughlin, deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, in a statement.
“All detainees receive adequate meals, medical treatment, and have the opportunity to communicate with their families and lawyers.”
But some family members of detainees waiting outside the centers disagree.
American citizen Alejandra Morales said her husband was detained for five days in Los Angeles without communication until he was transferred to Adelanto.
At the Los Angeles center, Morales said, “they don’t even let them brush their teeth, they don’t let them shower, nothing. They have them all sleeping on the floor, in a cell, all together.”
Morales said “many people are signing their deportation papers because they don’t have family or haven’t been able to communicate with their family.”
Hunsberger argued that for detainees and their families, the treatment appears deliberate.
“They are starting to feel that this is a strategy to exhaust people, keep them in inhumane conditions, and then pressure them into signing something where they might agree to be deported,” she said.