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Trump's exec order is same as GEO Group pushed Republicans to enact last year to increase profits.
GEO Group and CoreCivic both operate family detention centers that had population drops last year.
In May 2017, Newsweek reported on the bill that GEO pushed to change law to be able to detain immigrant children indefinitely. A Republican Representative even stated that the legislation came from GEO Group. GEO Group also pumped money into a PAC and into Republicans’ campaigns, much as they have already done for Trump.
Even with all this, they could not pass this law last year.
This year Trump and Sessions created a crisis by enacting a policy separating families. After first saying he could not change this, Trump is signing an executive order which sounds exactly like the law GEO Group wanted to be able to fill their family detention centers.
http://www.newsweek.com/geo-group-private-prisons-immigration-detention-trump-596505
PRIVATE PRISON COMPANY GEO GROUP GAVE GENEROUSLY TO TRUMP AND NOW HAS LUCRATIVE CONTRACT
Within the Texas legislature, a controversial bill is pending. A private prisons company called the GEO Group has allegedly asked Republicans to submit a law that could lead to immigrant children being indefinitely detained in its lucrative centers.
Representatives John Raney, John Cyrier and Mark Keough—all Republicans—have authored legislation that, if passed, would allow immigration detention centers to obtain child care licenses. Equipped with the permits, the centers would then be able to circumvent a 2015 federal ruling that said detained immigrant children must be transferred to a child care facility after 20 days in detention.
Raney, Cyrier and Keough’s bill would not require the detention centers to change their setups, but it could significantly benefit them. The GEO Group, which runs the Karnes Residential Center—one of two family detention facilities in Texas—earns $55 million annually from the facility. At present, just 100 of its 830 beds are occupied, according to the Associated Press.
This perhaps explains why the GEO Group—despite having a Greek immigrant, George Zoley as its CEO—is so keen to see Raney, Cyrier and Keough’s bill pass. So keen, in fact, that the organization essentially wrotePrison company struggles to get license to hold children it. “I’ve known the lady who's [the GEO Group’s] lobbyist for a long time,” Raney told the Associated Press. That's where the legislation came from. We don't make things up. People bring things to us and ask us to help.”
Representatives John Raney, John Cyrier and Mark Keough—all Republicans—have authored legislation that, if passed, would allow immigration detention centers to obtain child care licenses. Equipped with the permits, the centers would then be able to circumvent a 2015 federal ruling that said detained immigrant children must be transferred to a child care facility after 20 days in detention.
Raney, Cyrier and Keough’s bill would not require the detention centers to change their setups, but it could significantly benefit them. The GEO Group, which runs the Karnes Residential Center—one of two family detention facilities in Texas—earns $55 million annually from the facility. At present, just 100 of its 830 beds are occupied, according to the Associated Press.
This perhaps explains why the GEO Group—despite having a Greek immigrant, George Zoley as its CEO—is so keen to see Raney, Cyrier and Keough’s bill pass. So keen, in fact, that the organization essentially wrotePrison company struggles to get license to hold children it. “I’ve known the lady who's [the GEO Group’s] lobbyist for a long time,” Raney told the Associated Press. That's where the legislation came from. We don't make things up. People bring things to us and ask us to help.”
From April 2017:
https://apnews.com/adbd71efcfaf4b9a96c379face79fbe9/private-prison-company-struggles-get-license-family
Prison company struggles to get license to hold children
The Karnes Residential Center, 60 miles south of San Antonio, opened as a family detention center in 2014 and used to hold detainees for months, until a federal judge ruled that children held longer than 20 days must be housed in “non-secure” facilities with child care licenses.
~~~
State Sen. Bryan Hughes, another Republican and sponsor of the Senate bill, said the family facilities will probably close without licenses. He said he remains confident the bill will advance because “illegal immigration is one of the top, if not the No. 1 concern of people in Texas.”
GEO Group’s political action committee has spent up to $320,000 lobbying the Texas Legislature since January and contributed $193,000 to Texas lawmakers’ campaigns since 2013, according to Texans for Public Justice, a left-leaning political watchdog group that compiled its findings using Texas Ethics Commission filings.
~~~
Based in Boca Raton, Florida, GEO earns about $55 million annually from Karnes, its only family facility. Karnes’ population has plummeted to about 100 in the 830-bed facility. The state’s other family facility, the 2,400-bed South Texas Residential Center, is run by CoreCivic, America’s largest private prison operator. Its population has dropped to about 200.
~~~
State Sen. Bryan Hughes, another Republican and sponsor of the Senate bill, said the family facilities will probably close without licenses. He said he remains confident the bill will advance because “illegal immigration is one of the top, if not the No. 1 concern of people in Texas.”
GEO Group’s political action committee has spent up to $320,000 lobbying the Texas Legislature since January and contributed $193,000 to Texas lawmakers’ campaigns since 2013, according to Texans for Public Justice, a left-leaning political watchdog group that compiled its findings using Texas Ethics Commission filings.
~~~
Based in Boca Raton, Florida, GEO earns about $55 million annually from Karnes, its only family facility. Karnes’ population has plummeted to about 100 in the 830-bed facility. The state’s other family facility, the 2,400-bed South Texas Residential Center, is run by CoreCivic, America’s largest private prison operator. Its population has dropped to about 200.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/20/politics/trump-separation-action-immigration/index.html
Even so, the move is almost certain to face immediate legal action challenging the administration's authority to keep families detained at length.
The President was not required to sign anything to change the administration's practice that elicited outrage. He could have reversed the practice of splitting children from their parents with a phone call.
The President was not required to sign anything to change the administration's practice that elicited outrage. He could have reversed the practice of splitting children from their parents with a phone call.
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Here’s a link that has info about the museum exhibit I referred to above. Too many damn similarities to what went on before:
https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/modern-asian-art-flavored-with-history/
The dominant display in the mostly wide-open gallery space is James Lawrence Ardeña’s suspended photographs and consumer products embedded in cobalt-blue resin. Skin-lightening serum, imported children’s snacks and a pair of laborer’s shoes offer portraiture not only of the past, but of a modern culture, caught in the sticky space between racism and the expectation of assimilation. In the next space, Susie Jungune Lee projects immigration documents through 2,000 pieces of tracing paper, stretching like shed snakeskin from a stark white wall. Snippets of personal information — birthplace, weight, eye color — that appear, then fade, then appear again on the display emphasize the reality of reducing a person to a stack of governmental records.
Lurking in the corner of the exhibit, June Sekiguchi’s intricately designed wooden cages imprison dolls from several Asian nations. The display represents the tendency to objectify, and thus immure, immigrants by stereotype and, in case the lesson isn’t apparent enough, visitors are invited to step behind a human-sized lattice for a visceral — and unnerving — sense of entrapment. Both Heinrich Toh’s historical photographs, mounted on Chinese paper-cut designs, and Saya Moriyasu’s contemporary portraits of old porcelain dolls, framed above a ceramic mantelpiece, explore the endurance and authenticity of a cultural family.
Lurking in the corner of the exhibit, June Sekiguchi’s intricately designed wooden cages imprison dolls from several Asian nations. The display represents the tendency to objectify, and thus immure, immigrants by stereotype and, in case the lesson isn’t apparent enough, visitors are invited to step behind a human-sized lattice for a visceral — and unnerving — sense of entrapment. Both Heinrich Toh’s historical photographs, mounted on Chinese paper-cut designs, and Saya Moriyasu’s contemporary portraits of old porcelain dolls, framed above a ceramic mantelpiece, explore the endurance and authenticity of a cultural family.
