By Marinee Zavala
In the U.S., the detention of immigrant communities is carried out without failure by immigration and customs enforcement agencies throughout the country. Every year, 400,000 people suffer behind bars due to a federal policy that requires that 34,000 spaces be maintained for immigrant detention every single day.
From August 22 through August 26, non-profits such as the American Friends Service Committee participated in a campaign against this measure that year after year contributes to the separation of families and to a series of arbitrary and senseless detentions. Actions taken by the American Friends Service Committee included emailing top-level public servants, speaking out about the issue on social and mass media, and fundraising to further the cause.
“We have had meetings with members of Congress, such as Susan Davis, Scott H. Peters, and Juan Vargas, to call for them to address the matter because when the time comes to approve funding for the Department of Homeland Security there has to be enough rejection from Congress members to stop enforcing this law,” said Pedro Rios, San Diego Director of the American Friends Service Committee.
American taxpayers are footing a steep bill for housing these detainees, to the tune of $2 billion dollars a year. According to groups such as the American Friends Service Committee, these laws are promoted by private prisons looking only after their own interests, to maximize their profits and contracts with the U.S. Government.
“We know that laws such as Arizona’s SB 1070 were sponsored by people who were members of these companies’ Boards. So, they benefit from having all these raids throughout the country, because then they have the guarantee that they will be detained and then housed in their detention centers,” added Rios.
Private detention facilities such as Corrections Corporation of America and GEO Group have multi-million dollar contracts with the Department of Homeland Security, which in 2005 alone generated $95 million dollars, and over $221 million from 2015 to date.
“There are private companies profiting from the detention of human beings.This quota is inhumane because there really are alternatives that could be implemented in order to not have so many people detained and costing the U.S. so much money.”
These measures against human beings that come to the United States seeking nothing more than to improve their quality of life continue to outrage Immigrant Rights groups and community members. The actions have caused panic among undocumented immigrants living in the U.S., as well as among U.S. taxpayers due to the high costs coming out of their taxes.
“The cost per day to house a prisoner at one of these private detention centers is $180 on average, when at a public facility the cost of housing an inmate is only $12 per day, a huge difference as far as the budgets and expenditures the Federal government needs to allocate,” pointed out Pedro Rios.
After their nationwide Week of Action to End the Detention Quota, the San Diego American Friends Service Committee has held community education meetings on the topic. At one session in Barrio Logan, the community spoke out against the injustices being carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
A protest against these actions and against giving money to private detention companies is being planned for October 6 of this year.
“To us, this is an injustice, and goes against this country’s values, and at the same time there are these companies that are profiting from detaining human beings,” closed Pedro Rios.