Dream Defenders is an organization that has been working to end the awful incarceration policies that affect immigrants under the Trump/Sessions “zero tolerance” policy. The GEO group is the single largest contractor for ICE-related prison deals with the United States, pulling in close to half a billion dollars in contracts.
According to a breakdown of current ICE contracts by the independent investigative website Sludge, no single company is making more money off the federal deportation machine than GEO. Per Sludge's data, GEO holds $471 million — nearly half of $1 billion — in federal ICE contracts.
As such, they have become a focal point for groups like the Dream Defenders, as these advocates for the less powerful work tirelessly to expose the people profiting off of human misery. On Friday, the group received a cease and desist letter from a large law firm representing the GEO Group. The letter argues that in calling out the numerous problems of separating families and caging children and preying upon people of color and poor white folks, the Dream Defenders are incorrectly blaming the foot soldiers who are carrying out the human rights violations going on, and not the original source of the policies.
By way of background, we recently learned that Dream Defenders, Inc. ("Dream Defenders") has engaged in an internet driven, targeted and intentional campaign seeking to not only defame GEO's business reputation, but incite disruption at GEO's facilities throughout the country. Such a reckless campaign threatens GEO's ability to maintain the safety of its facilities and the employees and individuals located therein. More specifically, Dream Defenders published on its website incendiary and false information dedicated to actively soliciting, promoting and encouraging a national "day of disruption" on August 7, 2018, interference with GEO's facility operations, and the advocacy of a "fight" at the Company's locations. Dream Defenders' proposed actions go well beyond the parameters of protected speech, encouraging threatening and violent behavior toward GEO and its employees.
These activities by Dream Defenders pose a serious and immediate threat to the safety of GEO's operations, employees, and all individuals (including detainees) located within its facilities. Indeed, GEO's facilities have become a target for the very harmful behavior that Dream Defenders is advocating. In recent weeks, large groups have damaged GEO's property, hindered GEO's ability to fulfill its obligations of providing safe and secure transport of detained individuals, and threatened the lives of employees within GEO facilities. Dream Defenders' actions only further incite this unlawful and dangerous behavior.
The letter outlines a few points that they say are “false:”
• Blatantly false allegations that GEO "separates" families;
• Blatantly false allegations that GEO "cages" children;
• Blatantly false allegations that GEO "puts Black, Latino and poor White people into jail;" and
• Blatantly false accusations that GEO asserts improper influence over the United States political system and an incorrect publication of a list of individuals to whom GEO supposedly made political contributions.
And to that last point, the letter argues that any and all “influence” that the GEO has made is “legal.” The group responded to the letters, reminding the GEO that “improper influence” doesn’t mean that it isn’t legal—just immoral. In response to caging children:
You hold children behind bars, fences, and/or in locked facilities. GEO’s own website details facilities across the country used to detain children for federal and state governments. Your own promotional materials refer to “standard GTI security equipment such as steel cages” in your transportation fleet. Just this week, conditions in your Karnes County, TX facility have forced hundreds of children and fathers into a strike to protest what they describe as “being treated like animals.” Furthermore, GEO maintains specially outfitted busses for field trips, brief respites from confinement, for children as young as four years old.
They also remind GEO that the company makes big profits by gouging incarcerated kids and adults who want to talk with their loved ones via phone. The Dream Defenders also remarked that arguing that you are only following orders hasn’t been a viable argument since the Nuremberg Trials. One of the group leaders told this to Think Progress:
“Many quotes from their cease-and-desist were pulled from a video of an 8-year-old Dream Defender named Yaya who broke it down in very plan lainguage what GEO Group does, in elementary-school language,” Gilmer said. “They literally feel threatened by an 8-year-old girl who’s making it clear to her peers what GEO Group does.”
You can watch Yaya’s terrifying attack on GEO below. Enjoy Yaya. She’s so much smarter than our current country’s leadership. I want more Yaya!!!!
