Tag Archives: Immigration

Hitting the cartels where it hurts

Former border state governor advocates ending drug prohibition.

Gary Johnson, former governor of New Mexico, wrote in the Washington Times 5 August 2011, JOHNSON: Hitting the cartels where it hurts: Legalization of marijuana would end drug profiteering and violence

Imagine you are a drug lord in Mexico, making unfathomable profits sending your illegal product to the United States. What is the headline you fear the most? “U.S. to build bigger fence”? “U.S. to send troops to the border”? “U.S. to deploy tanks in El Paso”? No. None of those would give you much pause. They would simply raise the level of difficulty and perhaps cause you to escalate the violence that already has turned the border region into a war zone. But would they stop you or ultimately hurt your bottom line? Probably not.

But what if that drug lord opened his newspaper and read this: “U.S. to legalize and regulate marijuana”? That would ruin his day, and ruin it in a way that could not be fixed with more and bigger guns, higher prices or more murder.

As a Republican, he manages to say legalize and regulate but forget to mention tax, and he didn’t mention Jimmy Carter or Javier Sicilia calling for an end to the drug war, but he did mention (I added the links): Continue reading →

Private prison operations have been rife with abuse —WV Council of Churches

Another Sunday, another church group against private prisons; this time, a group of churches.

Dan Heyman wrote 12 January 2010 for Public News Service – WV, Churches: No Private Prison For Immigrants In WV,

CHARLESTON, WV – West Virginia’s largest church group has asked U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd and the rest of the state’s congressional delegation to oppose funding a private prison for undocumented immigrants in Pendleton County near the Virginia border. The Council of Churches is one of several groups discussing immigration reform ahead of expected congressional action on the issue. The Council has asked federal lawmakers’ help in the effort, arguing private prison operations have been rife with abuse. GSI Professional Corrections is seeking county commission approval to build the detention center near Sugar Grove to house 1,000 nonviolent immigrant detainees awaiting possible deportation.

Rev. Dennis Sparks, the Council’s executive director, complains private prisons operate outside the mainstream legal

Continue reading →

CCA and The GEO Group have been accused of human rights abuses —United Methodist Church

Methodists lobby private prison companies CCA and GEO as shareholders about human rights issues. Seems like this doesn’t help with the 2008 United Methodist Church Resolution 3281, Welcoming the Migrant to the US, which advocated the “elimination of privately-operated detention centers,” but at least they’re doing something. I expect what they’ll accomplish by such lobbying is to demonstrate that private prison companies have no intention of addressing human rights issues, because that would cut into their profits.

Published by General Board of Pension and Health Benefits of The United Methodist Church July 2011, Faith-Based Investors Take a Closer Look at Private Prisons,

In 2011, members of the United Methodist Interagency Task Force on Immigration approached the General Board of Pension and Health Benefits (General Board) with concerns about two private prison companies in the General Board’s investment portfolio: Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and The GEO Group, Inc. The United Methodist Interagency Task Force on Immigration was created following the General Conference of 2004. Membership includes representatives from the General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM), the General Commission on Religion and Race, the General Board of Church and Society (GBCS), Methodists Associated to Represent the Cause of Hispanic Americans (MARCHA) and two bishops. In addition, GBCS has shared its concern that CCA and The GEO Group have been accused of human rights abuses of young people, immigrants and people of color.

CCA and The GEO Group are the two largest private prison companies in the U.S., operating and/or owning, respectively, 111 and 118 correctional, detention and/or residential treatment facilities. In 2010, CCA earned nearly $1.7 billion; The GEO Group, $1.3 billion.

Investor Engagement with Private Prisons

Continue reading →

ALEC crafts state laws, including for private prisons and big oil

ALEC writes laws for big oil and for private prison companies. In the first LAKE post about the proposed private prison in Lowndes County, I pointed out that ALEC helped CCA lobby for that Arizona “anti-immigration” law that actually is stuffed with new jail, misdemeanor, and felony penalties that bring more “customers” to CCA private prisons. Georgia was just the first of 24 states lobbied by ALEC to pass such bogus bills for CCA’s private profit. Since then other people have dug into ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, and found its tentacles everywhere, promoting profits for big business at taxpayer expense.

Alison Fitzgerald wrote for Bloomberg 21 July 2011, Koch, Exxon Mobil Among Corporations Helping Write State Laws:

Koch Industries Inc. and Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) are among companies that would benefit from almost identical energy legislation introduced in state capitals from Oregon to New Mexico to New Hampshire — and that’s by design.

The energy companies helped write the legislation at a meeting organized by a group they finance, the American Legislative Exchange Council, a Washington-based policy institute known as ALEC.

The corporations, both ALEC members, took a seat at the legislative drafting table beside elected officials and policy analysts by paying a fee between $3,000 and $10,000, according to documents obtained by Bloomberg News.

The opportunity for corporations to become co-authors of state laws legally

Continue reading →

Ohio selling off prisons

The governor of Ohio created a budget shortfall, and wants to solve it by selling off private prisons in “a yard sale” in a recession, like “a junkie” for “his next fix.”

According to testimony by a nonpartisan research institute:

“The biggest source of Ohio’s budget problem is not overspending or compenstation for public employees. It is a reduction in revenue.
…
The tax changes also were weighted to high-income Ohioans. More than 40 percent of the income-tax cuts are going to the five percent of families with income of $135,000 or more a year. Meanwhile, the bottom three-fifths of Ohio families will receive just 13 percent of the total tax cut.
According to a recent poll, the people of Ohio think this is unfair and don’t believe the governor can fix the budget without raising taxes.

There are other reasons selling off prisons to private prison companies such as CCA is a bad idea.

Mark Niquette wrote for Bloomberg 29 June 2011, Kasich Tries to Avoid Arizona’s Mistakes in Ohio Prison Selloff:

Still, Democratic lawmakers, including Representative Matt Lundy of Elyria, question whether Ohio is making a wise move.

“The buyer wins and the taxpayers lose when we sell in the middle of a recession,” Lundy said during press conference last month, calling the move “a yard sale.”

Selling assets for “one-time” money is a mistake, Louisiana Treasurer John Kennedy said. He opposed a plan by Republican Governor Bobby Jindal to sell three prisons to raise $90 million, a proposal the Legislature didn’t approve.

“A junkie can sell his TV or his stereo or his iPod and generate money for his next fix,” Kennedy, also a Republican, said in a telephone interview from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. “But if he’s going to ever get well, he needs to face his addiction.”

An even better quote in that story comes from CCA’s own Steve Owen: Continue reading →

GA HB 87 ridiculed in California editorial

The Ventura County Star in California editorialized Sunday:
Laws sometimes have unintended consequences, and laws hastily passed in time of high political passions inevitably do.
Continue reading →

Another anti-HB 87 rally gets national coverage

AP story in the Wall Street Journal yesterday, Opponents of GA immigration law rally at Capitol:
Several hundred people, mostly labor union members, rallied Saturday at the Georgia Capitol against the state’s new law targeting illegal immigrants. It was the latest in a string of actions by opponents to protest the law.

The Rev. Al Sharpton told the crowd the law violates civil and human rights and will lead to racial profiling of U.S. citizens and others who are in the country legally.

“We’re going to stop it here before it goes any further to other communities,” the New York-based minister and civil rights activist said. “We cannot have a nation where, based on your language or your race, determines your rights. Your rights must be determined by the fact that we’re all equal.”

The Washington Examiner included a byline, by Kate Brumback, and an AP photo:
Ben Speight, a local Teamsters organizer, echoed those sentiments and said labor groups must get involved.

“Let’s get in the way of hate. Let’s build a social movement,” he said, to loud cheers. “Labor cannot be isolated. We’ve got to reach out to the community and stand up against hate.”

Weekly rallies; an interesting development on a subject that unites urban union members and rural farmers.

-jsq

Who wants to live in a prison colony?

Judy Green, a prison policy analyst says:
“The very first contract for the first private prison in America went to CCA, from INS.”
Hear her in this video Private Prisons-Commerce in Souls by Grassroots Leadership that explains the private prison trade of public safety for private profit:

A local leader once called private prisons “good clean industry”. Does locking up people for private profit sound like “good clean industry” to you? Remember, not only is the U.S. the worst in the world for locking people up (more prisoners per capita and total than any other country in the world), but Georgia is the worst in the country, with 1 in 13 adults in the prison system. And private prisons don’t save money and they don’t improve local employment. As someone says in the video, who wants to live in a prison colony?

We don’t need a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia. Spend that tax money on rehabilitation and education.

-jsq

PS: Owed to Jeana Brown.

We believe the entire law needs to be overturned —UUCA

Another Sunday, another religious group against the incarceration machine.

Jane Osborn sent this, dated 27 June 2011:

Editorial Statement to Atlanta Journal Constitution

Here is the statement Rev. Anthony David and Rev. Marti Keller sent to the Atlanta Journal Constitution editorial page editor today following the federal court ruling placing an injunction on parts of HB 87. We of course do not know if it will be published, but wanted to respond in a timely way.

As Unitarian Universalist ministers, we affirm justice, equity and compassion in human relations. We applaud the federal judge who halted several parts of Georgia’s anti-immigration law, but we believe the entire law needs to be overturned. It cannot substitute for comprehensive immigration reform at a national level. The law in its entirety is unjust, fear-based, and inhumane.

Rev. Anthony David

Rev. Marti Keller

Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta

HB 87 feeds private prison profit at taxpayer and farmer expense. We don’t need a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia: spend that tax money on rehabilitation and education instead.

-jsq

Anti-HB 87 rally makes national news

Ten thousand or so people marching who mostly never did before. Google news finds 267 articles like this one.

AP reports today, Thousands rally against Ga. immigration law:

Thousands of marchers stormed the Georgia Capitol on Saturday to protest the state’s new immigration law, which they say creates an unwelcome environment for people of color and those in search of a better life.

Men, women and children of all ages converged on downtown Atlanta for the march and rally, cheering speakers while shading themselves with umbrellas and posters from the blazing summer sun. Capitol police and organizers estimated that between 8,000 and 14,000 protesters gathered. They filled the blocks around the Capitol, holding signs decrying House Bill 87 and reading “Immigration Reform Now!”

Friends Jessica Bamaca and Melany Cordero held a poster that read: “How would you feel if your family got broken apart?”

And remember, HB 87 has many provisions that bring “customers” to CCA’s ICE prison.

We don’t need to feed the incarceration machine with a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia. Spend that tax money on rehabilitation and education instead.

-jsq