*For Immediate Release*: Aug. 11, 2020
*Media Contact:*Rebekah Entralgo, [email protected]*
*

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*Judge Temporarily Blocks Private Prison Company’s Plan For Detention
Centers
**/Preliminary Injunction Issued against The GEO Group/*

***SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA—*A private prison company’s plan to expand
immigration detention by a whopping 350 percent in Kern County was
blocked today, after a federal judge ruled in favor of a preliminary
injunction requested by Freedom for Immigrants and the Immigrant Legal
Resource Center (ILRC). This follows the judge’s grant of a temporary
restraining order on this same matter.

The groups requested the preliminary injunction after the city of
McFarland approved the private prison company GEO Group’s request to
convert two 700-bed facilities in Kern County into annexes for the Mesa
Verde ICE Processing Center, which currently cages up to 400 immigrants
in Bakersfield daily. These converted facilities were otherwise primed
to open at the height of the COVID19 pandemic, and would surely have
joined other detention centers in their utter inability to protect
people from COVID19.

City officials violated SB 29, the Dignity not Detention Act, which was
drafted and co-sponsored by Freedom for Immigrants and the ILRC in 2017
and passed in partnership with the California Dignity not Detention
Coalition. The act clearly states that entities must provide at least
180 days’ notice before issuing a permit for an immigration detention
facility and they must hold two open meetings for public comments. The
city of McFarland failed to do both, despite powerful community turnout
reflecting how important this issue is to local communities.

SB 29 is one of many laws passed by the California Dignity not Detention
Coalition, including AB 103 and AB 32.//

/“City officials clearly violated state law, seeking profits over
people, cash over compassion,” said*Grisel Ruiz, supervising attorney at
the Immigrant Legal Resource Center*. “Residents must be given an
opportunity to voice their opinion on whether the centers should be
brought to their county and they were not afforded that choice. The
Dignity Not Detention Act’s aim was to make this process transparent and
avoid backroom deals.”/

/“For too long, private prisons have attempted to circumvent state and
federal laws to expand immigration detention and line the pockets of
their shareholders. Today, the courts saw through this farce,”
said*Christina Fialho, an attorney and the co-founder/executive director
of Freedom for Immigrants*. “This case should remind us all that GEO
Group is not a law unto itself, but rather must comply with the laws of
any state in which it operates.”/

/“Earlier this year, hundreds of fearless McFarland community members
did everything in their power to organize and plead to  their City
representatives to not sell them out for a Florida corporation’s added
profits,” said*Lety Valencia, co-Director of Organizing for Faith in the
Valley*. “At the 11^th hour, their City Council decided to go around
their own constituents and cut them out of the decision-making process
while the rest of the world was focused on a pandemic. While McFarland’s
residents and essential workers continue to work tirelessly to feed
themselves and the world, today’s news at least gives them some needed
hope that this process is far from over.”/

The case will be heard in federal district court. The date of the
hearing is pending.

Court documents are available upon request.

###

/The Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC) is a national nonprofit that
works with immigrants, community organizations, legal professionals, and
policy makers to build a democratic society that values diversity and
the rights of all people. Through community education programs, legal
training & technical assistance, and policy development & advocacy, the
ILRC’s mission is to protect and defend the fundamental rights of
immigrant families and communities.//www.ilrc./
<[link removed]>/org
<[link removed]>/

///Faith in the Valley/
<[link removed]>/is
a multi-faith, multi-racial coalition of over 100 Central Valley
congregations, covering over 200 miles from San Joaquin to Kern
counties, organizing in unity for our region’s most vulnerable families
and communities, and for a Central Valley that truly protects, values
and includes everyone. During this pandemic and at all times, this
includes the right for everyone in the Central Valley to work, live and
grow in health, shelter and community.///

/Freedom for Immigrants is devoted to abolishing immigration detention,
while ending the isolation of people currently suffering in this
profit-driven system. We monitor the human rights abuses faced by
immigrants detained by ICE through a national hotline and network of
volunteer detention visitors, while also modeling a community-based
alternative to detention that welcomes immigrants into the social fabric
of the United States. Through these windows into the system, we gather
data and stories to combat injustice at the individual level and push
systemic change. Visitwww.freedomforimmigrants.org
<[link removed]>. Follow @MigrantFreedom/

--
Rebekah Entralgo | She/Her/Ella
Media Advocacy Strategist
FREEDOM for IMMIGRANTS
Cell: 786-897-4080
www.freedomforimmigrants.org

Freedom for Immigrants is working to abolish immigration detention. Learn more & donate here.

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