Trump’s campaign against immigration paves the way for private prison profits with ICE detention capacity depleted, as deportation efforts continue amid efforts to hamstring legal avenues for immigrants in court. According to NBC News, I.C.E. is planning a new operation targeting families with orders of deportation, with a separate operation to find unaccompanied children released without court dates reportedly underway. This follows last month’s stop-work order issued by the DOJ to legal service providers receiving federal funding on work supporting immigrants in court, and the rescinded order to cut funding to organizations providing free legal representation for unaccompanied immigrant children. Recently ABC reported that over 100 immigration staff had left or been fired since Trump’s inauguration, with some of those dismissed outright being part of a new Biden-era class of judges hired to “help mitigate the overwhelming backlog of cases.”
As Trump compromises the capacity for the legal processing of immigration cases, the already overwhelming backlog grows and raids continue, though reportedly not at a pace sufficient to satisfy the party. According to CBS News, ICE’s detention capacity has been “depleted,” at 120% capacity with more than 46,000 people detained despite having only 38,000 beds according to internal government statistics. Private prison contractors with longstanding ties to ICE stand to profit from this stagnation. On Wednesday, Core Civic, a private prison group, announced the reopening of its Texas family detention center. Private detention contractors claim they offer “less expensive options” than the military bases, including the Guantanamo Bay Naval Station which Trump reinstated as locations for immigrant detention.
Be very careful!
Beware of notaries, immigration consultants or anyone who is not qualified and prepared in these matters. Always seek the advice and services of an immigration attorney for your immigration processes and procedures.