Faith in the Valley Condemns California City Immigration Detention Center

Kern County, which is already home to two ICE detention facilities, may soon become home to California’s largest immigration detention center—run by CoreCivic, a multi-billion-dollar corporation and one of the largest private prison operators in the US.

CoreCivic makes billions off incarceration, immigrant detention and family separation and preys on rural communities and struggling cities like California City where CoreCivic has an agreement with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to transform its 2,560-bed facility into the state’s newest and largest immigration detention center.

On Tuesday night, Faith in the Valley joined residents, faith leaders and activists to say NO to this expansion and to call on city officials to hold CoreCivic accountable for their well documented record of medical neglect and abysmal care of detainees, unsafe conditions, abuse and violence, retaliation, cutting off communication and access to accompaniment, and unlawful labor and employment practices.

Every person detained represents a family torn apart. We cannot stand idly by while private companies profit off the pain and suffering of our neighbors and loved ones who are being targeted as a means to an end: profit and greed.

This growing carceral state is all part of the federal administration’s cruel mass detention and deportation agenda, making ICE the largest law enforcement agency in the country.

In the words of Taft leader Phuntso Dorjee, “The question that haunts me is the same question that faces us all: As the history of this struggle is being written, will we stand up for human rights, for dignity, for everything that our ancestors have fought for? Or will we shrink from the moment and hope no one remembers our names?”

Make no mistake—we will not stand for the criminalization and mass incarceration of any of our neighbors or loved ones, not our Black, Brown or Native brothers and sisters. We must continue to stand TOGETHER against this cruelty and fight for people over profits and investment in our communities, not incarceration.