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    I'm the Canadian who was detained by ICE for two weeks

    (www.theguardian.com)
    1009 points n1b0m | 11 comments | 19 Mar 25 11:21 UTC | HN request time: 0.709s | source | bottom
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    anonshadow ◴[19 Mar 25 17:00 UTC] No.43414529[source]▶
    This is the money shot : "Companies like CoreCivic and GEO Group receive government funding based on the number of people they detain, which is why they lobby for stricter immigration policies. It’s a lucrative business: CoreCivic made over $560m from Ice contracts in a single year. In 2024, GEO Group made more than $763m from Ice contracts.

    The more detainees, the more money they make. It stands to reason that these companies have no incentive to release people quickly. What I had experienced was finally starting to make sense."

    replies(6): >>43415273 #>>43416567 #>>43417288 #>>43418061 #>>43420975 #>>43421323 #
    1. tim333 ◴[19 Mar 25 19:54 UTC] No.43416567[source]▶
    I don't get the " tiny, freezing cement cell with bright fluorescent lights" and a foil blanket thing though. Why be so nasty? If you are making a business improperly detaining people it would only be likely to cause outrage and get it shut down?

    I'm curious as a non American why no one stops this. I mean presumably both political parties have not bothered. Do people in the US think it's ok? I think if that stuff happened in the UK there would be a lot of protests.

    replies(7): >>43416744 #>>43416798 #>>43417084 #>>43420058 #>>43421344 #>>43442476 #>>43445870 #
    2. dfox ◴[19 Mar 25 20:12 UTC] No.43416744[source]▶
    Cost optimization.
    3. femiagbabiaka ◴[19 Mar 25 20:17 UTC] No.43416798[source]▶
    Simple. It doesn't cause (genuine) outrage and it doesn't get them shut down. AOC for example, protested these private prisons during Trump's first term and went silent on them when Biden didn't close them.
    replies(1): >>43419515 #
    4. casenmgreen ◴[19 Mar 25 20:41 UTC] No.43417084[source]▶
    > I don't get the " tiny, freezing cement cell with bright fluorescent lights" and a foil blanket thing though.

    It's cheaper, would be my guess.

    These conditions though, it reads like the Standford experiment.

    This is properly tantamount to prisoner abuse.

    5. runarberg ◴[20 Mar 25 02:51 UTC] No.43419515[source]▶
    Here is a tweet from soon after Biden took office in January 2021:

    > People must understand the depth of what’s happening here: the President of the United States has ordered a halt to deportations. ICE, a federal agency, is refusing to comply.

    > There’s no reforming this rogue dept. It’s time for a new, just vision.

    https://x.com/AOC/status/1354211627940384768

    A month later she was criticizing DHS for still having Patriot act powers, and lumped ICE with the same criticism:

    > People have been writing about the deeply concerning issues with the structure of DHS for a long time.

    > This is from 3 years before I was even elected.

    > It’s not “fringe” to ask why FEMA & ICE are in the same Dept operation. Or question ICE’s operations

    https://x.com/AOC/status/1364619004921413633

    A day earlier she called for the abolition of ICE:

    > It’s only 2 mos into this admin & our fraught, unjust immigration system will not transform in that time.

    > That’s why bold reimagination is so impt.

    > DHS shouldn’t exist, agencies should be reorganized, ICE gotta go, ban for-profit detention, create climate refugee status & more.

    This one is very apt given OP.

    https://x.com/AOC/status/1364349732760518657

    She continued, this on is in April 2021:

    > A lot of people who are just now suddenly horrified at the dehumanizing conditions at our border are the same folks who dehumanize immigrants + helped build these cages in the 1st place.

    > When we tried to stop this infrastructure over a year ago,we were overruled by BOTH parties.

    > Fact is a lot of the politicians crying right now don’t work to solve either.

    > They vote to grow ICE + CBP cages and they do everything to avoid addressing the root: US foreign policy and interventionism that destabilizes regions, the climate crisis, and unjust economic policy.

    https://x.com/AOC/status/1377652851191787532

    Your statement that Alexandria Ocasia-Cortez stopped protesting these private prisons while Biden was in office is simply factually wrong. And it was not hard to check it.

    replies(2): >>43452280 #>>43472204 #
    6. johnnyanmac ◴[20 Mar 25 10:06 UTC] No.43421344[source]▶
    A lot of America (even parts of the left) still fall for the "hard on crime" narrative. They assume the sentences are just, and thus bad people deserve the worst. Even if our constitution has a clause agaisnt "cruel and unusual punishment".

    never-mind that we've had decades of initiatives using such prisons as a form of soft racism, something so longstanding that is publicly declassified information. And people still don't care.

    replies(1): >>43426060 #
    7. intended ◴[20 Mar 25 17:20 UTC] No.43426060[source]▶
    They would go further, and argue that it’s the people who argue against this narrative, are supporters of criminals.

    I.e. - It’s gone from “you are too soft on crime”, to “you are supporting criminals.”

    8. bigfatkitten ◴[22 Mar 25 01:31 UTC] No.43442476[source]▶
    > If you are making a business improperly detaining people it would only be likely to cause outrage and get it shut down?

    On the contrary. In the US in particular, there is a large and outspoken segment of the voting base that love to see this sort of thing.

    9. closewith ◴[22 Mar 25 14:32 UTC] No.43445870[source]▶
    > I think if that stuff happened in the UK there would be a lot of protests.

    A lot worse happened in UK prisons in Northern Ireland and people in Great Britain widely cheered it on. Target the right minorities and there'd be no shortage of supporters in Westminster.

    10. freen ◴[23 Mar 25 11:37 UTC] No.43452280{3}[source]▶
    [flagged]
    11. femiagbabiaka ◴[25 Mar 25 15:03 UTC] No.43472204{3}[source]▶
    1) Tweets are not substantive action. I was actually involved in abolish ICE actions in real life and watched it die.

    2) Tweets are even less meaningful when in real life she supported at every step the people who were actively propping up ICE. Including Bernie, who just recently said Biden could have done more on illegal immigration. (Biden deported more people than Trump 1).

    AOC actually has a long track record of saying one thing and doing another, like the controversy over her “present” vote on weapons to Israel. This is the major reason why the Squad broke up. The most charitable interpretation of it is that she wants to gain cache within her party. But she doesn’t realize her party hates her.

    If you want to continue to champion someone like that, I have no problem with it, at the least she’s effective at bringing people to the left after they are inevitably disillusioned by something her or Bernie does.