A $21 million, privately-run immigration detention facility in Farmville, VA, considered to be largest immigration detention center on the mid-Atlantic coast, opened its doors last month. The facility will house some 584 detainees in its first phase and might eventually grow to hold 1,000. Many of those in the facility will be level 1 offenders caught through the Secure Communities, which relies on police in local jails to enter arrest data into a joint FBI and Immigration and Customs and Enforcement (ICE) database. The facility operators Immigration Company of America (ICA-Farmville) …

Private detention centers – most of which are operated by CCA – are key to the federal government’s goal of “ensuring the departure from the United States of all removable aliens,” which are estimated to total about 12 million.

In San Diego, the ACLU lawsuit prompted ICE to move some of the detainees to other detention centers. It also prompted CCA to propose constructing a new facility nearby that would hold four times more detainees. Thus, rather than being penalized for overcrowding, the company may even end up winning a new contract.