It took a week for the shoe to drop. If you haven’t been paying attention, we now know who will be the first group to fill the newly available private prisons. Immigrant detainees. Mothers and children. Thousands of them. And make no mistake about it. No matter what they say, this is about one thing. Money.
8 days ago I posted a diary noting that Jeff Sessions had quietly reversed another progressive, humanitarian order by the Obama administration. Back in the groove again: Private Prisons; Bad for prisoners, guards, society — Good for Profits. It didn’t get much attention at the time, because who can possibly keep up with all the crap that keeps raining down from this administration??? But I couln’t help being worried, remembering three things:
- On November 9, 2016, the only piece of immediate financial news I clearly recalled: Private prison stocks were surging.
- The stocks of the two biggest private prison operators -- CoreCivic (formerly know as Corrections Corp. of America) and Geo Group -- have doubled since election day. CoreCivic (CXW) is up 140% since Trump won in November; Geo Group (GEO) has risen 98%. money.cnn.com/…
- DT had just spent the last week announcing different groups he would be withdrawing protections from, if not targeting: transgender, free press, Muslim refugees, undocumented immigrants, maybe even protesters and pot smokers...
Was he possibly preparing warehouses for increasing numbers of expected future inmates? Somebody was going to get rich. I mean richer. Their profits had already more than doubled since the election.
Well, tonight on All In with Chris Hayes, we found out in an exclusive, just who tRump plans to fill those prisons / detention centers with.
The Trump administration is planning to radically expand the program and facilities for the detention of immigrant families seeking asylum in the United States, according to documents obtained exclusively by All In.
In a town hall with Department of Homeland Security staffers last month, Asylum Division Chief John Lafferty said DHS had already located 20,000 beds for the indefinite detention of those seeking asylum, according to notes from the meeting obtained by All In. This would represent a nearly 500% increase from current capacity.
The plan is part of a new set of policies for those apprehended at the border that would make good on President Trump’s campaign promise to end the practice critics call “catch and release.”
The swiftness of these actions is shocking, but even more shocking are the plans the Trump administration’s overhaul of U.S. policy include for dealing women and children seeking asylum.
Thousands of whom continue to show up at the southern border fleeing violence, vengeance and sexual assault in Central America.
Under the plan under consideration, DHS would break from the current policy keeping families together. Instead, it would separate women and children after they’ve been detained – leaving mothers to choose between returning to their country of origin with their children, or being separated from their children while staying in detention to pursue their asylum claim.
These guys are just rotten to the bone. What kind of country are they going to turn us into? Rotten, greedy, money-hungry, cold-hearted.
(Chris Hayes just blew that story out of the water. Mother Mags has posted a link to the actual video in the comments below.)
Saturday, Mar 4, 2017 · 2:20:37 PM +00:00
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rflctammt
From the Huffington Post this morning:
The policy shift would allow the government to keep parents in custody while they contest deportation or wait for asylum hearings. Children would be put into protective custody with the Department of Health and Human Services, in the “least restrictive setting” while until they can be taken into the care of a U.S. relative or state-sponsored guardian.
on Legal Considerations:
The policy would allow DHS to detain parents while complying with a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals order from July 2016 that immigrant children should be released from detention as quickly as possible. That order said their parents were not required to be freed.
To comply with that order, the Obama administration implemented a policy of holding women and children at family detention centers for no more than 21 days before releasing them.
Implementing the new policy proposal “could create lifelong psychological trauma,” said Marielena Hincapie, executive director at the National Immigration Law Center. “Especially for children that have just completed a perilous journey from Central America.”
Hincapie said the U.S. government is likely to face legal challenges based on immigration and family law if they decide to implement the policy.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly last week ordered immigration agents to deport or criminally prosecute parents who facilitate the illegal smuggling of their children.
Many parents who arrive on the U.S.-Mexico border with their children have paid smugglers to guide them across the dangerous terrain.