Government Security News August Digital Edition

Border Security/Immigration
Why the Department of Homeland Security
should also end private prison contracts
By Walter Ewing,
American Immigration Coucil
For two years, women and children
from Honduras, El Salvador,
and Guatemala have been fleeing to
the United States to escape the extreme
violence of gangs which control
large swaths of territory within
their home countries. And for two
years the Obama Administration
has responded to this humanitarian
crisis by locking up the women
and children seeking protection
and then deporting them back to
the countries where their lives may
be in danger. In defiance of its obligations
under international law,
the Administration is
Photo: Neil Conway
trying to deter future Central
American asylum
seekers by coming down
hard on current Central
American asylum seekers.
During that first “surge”
of refugees two years ago, the
Administration knew exactly what
it needed to get a handle on the crisis:
a bigger and better prison for
women and children. And so, according
to the Washington Post, the
Administration handed a $1 billion,
four-year contract to Corrections
Corporation of America (CCA) to
build a “massive detention facility
for women and children seeking
asylum.” In the sweetest of sweetheart
deals, CCA “gets the money
regardless of how many people are
detained at the facility.”
The facility in question
is the South Texas Family
Residential Center in Dilley,
Texas. According to the
Post:
“In 2015, the first full year
in which the South Texas
Family Residential Center
was operating, CCA—which
operates 74 facilities—made
30
14 percent of its revenue
from that one center
while recording record
profit. CCA declined to
specify the costs of operating
the center.”
The Administration’s heavyhanded
approach to the social turmoil
currently engulfing Honduras,
El Salvador, and Guatemala may
mean big money for private contractors,
but it’s not going to be an
effective deterrent to women who
are running for their lives or the
lives of their children. If you or your
child face murder, rape, or forced
induction into a gang if you stay, as
opposed to a slim chance of asylum
if you head to the United States,
then common sense dictates you
head to the United States.
Moreover, even looked at from a
purely financial standpoint, CCA
isn’t running a very cost-effective
prison. The Post writes that:
“When 2,400 people are detained,
the government spends
what amounts to $285 per day, per
person, according to a Post calculation.
When the facility is half-full,
More on page 43