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

(www.theguardian.com)
1009 points n1b0m | 2 comments | 19 Mar 25 11:21 UTC | HN request time: 0.509s | source
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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."

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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.

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1. 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.

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2. 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.”