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) …

ICE plans to make nine facilities more humane, by eliminating lock-downs, increasing visitor time, and providing e-mail access and Internet-based free phone service, the agency says.
The list of changes were leaked in a memo to the Houston Chronicle this week as it begins to implement the changes in low-risk units. Some of the changes will take place in 30 days, while others will take longer.
Other changes to be implemented will include allowing detainees to wear regular clothes, offering movie nights, bingo, dance and cooking classes, fresh plants, and four hours …

In earnings reports released this week the nation’s two largest private prison operators cited “significant growth opportunities” for detaining immigrants, driven largely by the Obama administration’s emphasis on detaining “criminal aliens.”
The GEO Group – an international private prison operator that draws about 75 percent of its revenue from controlling a quarter of the U.S. private prison industry – said it believes that “this federal initiative to target, detain, and deport “criminal aliens” throughout the country will continue to drive the need for immigration detention beds over the next several years.”
A …

Business of Detention Reporters Renee Feltz and Stokely Baksh were published on The American Prospect site. In their article “Detention Retention,” they examine what enforcement and detention prospects will look like under the Obama administration.
President Obama has tried to split the difference between comprehensive immigration-reform advocates and law-and-order types. But for immigrants in detention, not much has changed since the Bush era…
Click here to read more.

Corrections Corporation of America’s share prices sunk Tuesday after it announced lower earnings than expected in its annual report, but executives said they are “bullish” about the leading private prison provider’s long term future. Even as states cut their corrections budgets, immigrant detainees will provide CCA a steady source of income.
“The detainee growth will come from lots of sources,” CCA CEO John Ferguson told analysts during a telephone conference call. “So there is no reason to believe that these populations won’t just creep up over time.”
The current budget for Immigration …

The Nov./Dec. 2008 edition of NACLA Report on the Americas features a report by Renee Feltz examining how immigration officials have teamed up with the Department of Justice, federal judges, and the nation’s largest private prison company to merge immigration and criminal policy. Many undocumented immigrants now face jail time pending their immigration hearing in civil court. The resulting surge in prosecutions is staggering: About 60,000 immigrants will face charges in fiscal year 2008. See PDF of story here: nacla_feltz
Visit NACLA’s website at www.nacla.org

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.

The math is simple. More demand for immigrant detention beds, plus more government funding, equals more business for Corrections Corporation of America. Every year since 2003, the company has made record profits.

CCA plays the game of politics like a pro. After all forty percent of its revenue comes from federal contracts. The company backs key politicians who support an immigration crackdown, and has intensified its lobbying in order to influence those still on the fence.