Tag Archives: Immigration

Hitting the cartels where it hurts

Former border state governor advocates ending drug prohibition.

Gary Johnson, former governor of New Mexico, wrote in the Washington Times 5 August 2011,

JOHNSON: Hitting the cartels where it hurts:
Legalization of marijuana would end drug profiteering and violence



Imagine you are a drug lord in Mexico, making unfathomable profits
sending your illegal product to the United States. What is the headline
you fear the most? “U.S. to build bigger fence”? “U.S. to send
troops to the border”? “U.S. to deploy tanks in El Paso”? No. None
of those would give you much pause. They would simply raise the level of
difficulty and perhaps cause you to escalate the violence that already
has turned the border region into a war zone. But would they stop you
or ultimately hurt your bottom line? Probably not.

But what if that drug lord opened his newspaper and read this: “U.S. to
legalize and regulate marijuana”? That would ruin his day, and ruin
it in a way that could not be fixed with more and bigger guns, higher
prices or more murder.

As a Republican, he manages to say legalize and regulate but forget
to mention tax, and he didn’t mention
Jimmy Carter
or Javier Sicilia
calling for an end to the drug war,
but he did mention (I added the links):

Continue reading →

Private prison operations have been rife with abuse —WV Council of Churches

Another Sunday, another church group against private prisons;
this time, a group of churches.

Dan Heyman wrote 12 January 2010 for Public News Service – WV,

Churches: No Private Prison For Immigrants In WV,

CHARLESTON, WV – West Virginia’s largest church group has asked
U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd and the rest of the state’s congressional delegation
to oppose funding a private prison for undocumented immigrants in
Pendleton County near the Virginia border.


The Council of Churches is
one of several groups discussing immigration reform ahead of expected
congressional action on the issue. The Council has asked federal
lawmakers’ help in the effort, arguing private prison operations have
been rife with abuse. GSI Professional Corrections is seeking county
commission approval to build the detention center near Sugar Grove to
house 1,000 nonviolent immigrant detainees awaiting possible deportation.

Rev. Dennis Sparks, the Council’s executive director, complains private
prisons operate outside the mainstream legal

Continue reading →

CCA and The GEO Group have been accused of human rights abuses —United Methodist Church

Methodists lobby private prison companies CCA and GEO
as shareholders about human rights issues.
Seems like this doesn’t help with the 2008 United Methodist Church
Resolution 3281, Welcoming the Migrant to the US, which advocated the
“elimination of privately-operated detention centers,”
but at least they’re doing something.
I expect what they’ll accomplish by such lobbying is to demonstrate
that private prison companies have no intention of addressing
human rights issues, because that would cut into their profits.

Published by General Board of Pension and Health Benefits of The United Methodist Church July 2011,

Faith-Based Investors Take a Closer Look at Private Prisons,

In 2011, members of the United Methodist Interagency Task Force on
Immigration approached the General Board of Pension and Health Benefits


(General Board) with concerns about two private prison companies in
the General Board’s investment portfolio: Corrections Corporation of
America (CCA) and The GEO Group, Inc. The United Methodist Interagency
Task Force on Immigration was created following the General Conference
of 2004. Membership includes representatives from the General Board of
Global Ministries (GBGM), the General Commission on Religion and Race,
the General Board of Church and Society (GBCS), Methodists Associated to
Represent the Cause of Hispanic Americans (MARCHA) and two bishops. In
addition, GBCS has shared its concern that CCA and The GEO Group have
been accused of human rights abuses of young people, immigrants and
people of color.

CCA and The GEO Group are the two largest private prison companies in the
U.S., operating and/or owning, respectively, 111 and 118 correctional,
detention and/or residential treatment facilities. In 2010, CCA earned
nearly $1.7 billion; The GEO Group, $1.3 billion.

Investor Engagement with Private Prisons

Continue reading →

ALEC crafts state laws, including for private prisons and big oil

ALEC writes laws for big oil and for private prison companies.
In the

first LAKE post about the proposed private prison in Lowndes County,
I pointed out that ALEC helped CCA lobby for that Arizona “anti-immigration”
law that actually is stuffed with new jail, misdemeanor, and felony penalties that
bring more “customers” to CCA private prisons.
Georgia was just the first of
24 states lobbied by ALEC to pass such bogus bills for CCA’s private profit.
Since then other people have dug into ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, and found its tentacles everywhere, promoting profits
for big business at taxpayer expense.

Alison Fitzgerald wrote for Bloomberg 21 July 2011,

Koch, Exxon Mobil Among Corporations Helping Write State Laws:



Koch Industries Inc. and Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) are among companies
that would benefit from almost identical energy legislation introduced
in state capitals from Oregon to New Mexico to New Hampshire — and
that’s by design.

The energy companies helped write the legislation at a meeting organized
by a group they finance, the American Legislative Exchange Council,
a Washington-based policy institute known as ALEC.

The corporations, both ALEC members, took a seat at the legislative
drafting table beside elected officials and policy analysts by paying
a fee between $3,000 and $10,000, according to documents obtained by
Bloomberg News.

The opportunity for corporations to become co-authors of state laws
legally

Continue reading →

Ohio selling off prisons

The governor of Ohio created a budget shortfall, and wants to solve it
by selling off private prisons in “a yard sale” in a recession,
like “a junkie” for “his next fix.”


According to testimony by a nonpartisan research institute:

“The biggest source of Ohio’s budget problem is not overspending or
compenstation for public employees. It is a reduction in revenue.

…

The tax changes also were weighted to high-income Ohioans. More than 40
percent of the income-tax cuts are going to the five percent of families
with income of $135,000 or more a year. Meanwhile, the bottom three-fifths
of Ohio families will receive just 13 percent of the total tax cut.

According to a recent poll,
the people of Ohio think this is unfair and don’t believe the governor
can fix the budget without raising taxes.

There are other reasons selling off prisons to private prison
companies such as CCA is a bad idea.



Mark Niquette wrote for Bloomberg 29 June 2011,

Kasich Tries to Avoid Arizona’s Mistakes in Ohio Prison Selloff:



Still, Democratic lawmakers, including Representative Matt Lundy of
Elyria, question whether Ohio is making a wise move.

“The buyer wins and the taxpayers lose when we sell in the middle of
a recession,” Lundy said during press conference last month, calling
the move “a yard sale.”



Selling assets for “one-time” money is a mistake, Louisiana Treasurer
John Kennedy said. He opposed a plan by Republican Governor Bobby Jindal
to sell three prisons to raise $90 million, a proposal the Legislature
didn’t approve.

“A junkie can sell his TV or his stereo or his iPod and generate money
for his next fix,” Kennedy, also a Republican, said in a telephone
interview from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. “But if he’s going to ever
get well, he needs to face his addiction.”

An even better quote in that story comes from CCA’s own Steve Owen:

Continue reading →

GA HB 87 ridiculed in California editorial

The Ventura County Star in California

editorialized Sunday:



Laws sometimes have unintended consequences, and laws hastily passed in time of high political passions inevitably do.

Continue reading →

Another anti-HB 87 rally gets national coverage

AP story in the Wall Street Journal yesterday,

Opponents of GA immigration law rally at Capitol:

Several hundred people, mostly labor union members, rallied Saturday
at the Georgia Capitol against the state’s new law targeting illegal
immigrants. It was the latest in a string of actions by opponents to
protest the law.

The Rev. Al Sharpton told the crowd the law violates civil and human
rights and will lead to racial profiling of U.S. citizens and others
who are in the country legally.

“We’re going to stop it here before it goes any further to other
communities,” the New York-based minister and civil rights activist
said. “We cannot have a nation where, based on your language or your race,
determines your rights. Your rights must be determined by the fact that
we’re all equal.”

The Washington Examiner included a byline,
by Kate Brumback, and an AP photo:



Ben Speight, a local Teamsters organizer, echoed those sentiments and
said labor groups must get involved.

“Let’s get in the way of hate. Let’s build a social movement,” he said,
to loud cheers. “Labor cannot be isolated. We’ve got to reach out to
the community and stand up against hate.”

Weekly rallies; an interesting development on a subject that unites
urban union members and rural farmers.

-jsq

Who wants to live in a prison colony?



Judy Green, a prison policy analyst says:

“The very first
contract
for the first private prison in America
went to CCA, from INS.”

Hear her in this video

Private Prisons-Commerce in Souls by Grassroots Leadership
that explains the private prison trade of public safety for private profit:

A local leader once called private prisons “good clean industry”.
Does locking up people for private profit sound like “good clean industry” to you?
Remember, not only is the U.S. the worst in the world for locking people up
(more prisoners per capita and total than any other country in the world),
but Georgia is the worst in the country, with

1 in 13 adults in the prison system.
And private prisons

don’t save money and
they

don’t improve local employment.
As someone says in the video, who wants to live in a prison colony?

We don’t need a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia.
Spend that tax money on rehabilitation and education.

-jsq

PS: Owed to Jeana Brown.

We believe the entire law needs to be overturned —UUCA

Another Sunday, another religious group against the incarceration machine.

Jane Osborn sent this, dated 27 June 2011:


Editorial Statement to Atlanta Journal Constitution




Here is the statement Rev. Anthony David and Rev. Marti Keller sent to
the Atlanta Journal Constitution editorial page editor today following
the federal court ruling placing an injunction on parts of HB 87. We of
course do not know if it will be published, but wanted to respond in a
timely way.

As Unitarian Universalist ministers, we affirm justice, equity and
compassion in human relations. We applaud the federal judge who halted
several parts of Georgia’s anti-immigration law, but we believe the
entire law needs to be overturned. It cannot substitute for
comprehensive immigration reform at a national level. The law in its
entirety is unjust, fear-based, and inhumane.

Rev. Anthony David

Rev. Marti Keller


Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta

HB 87 feeds private prison profit at taxpayer and farmer expense.
We don’t need a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia:
spend that tax money on rehabilitation and education instead.

-jsq

Anti-HB 87 rally makes national news

Ten thousand or so people marching who mostly never did before.
Google news finds 267 articles like this one.

AP reports today,

Thousands rally against Ga. immigration law:



Thousands of marchers stormed the Georgia Capitol on Saturday to protest
the state’s new immigration law, which they say creates an unwelcome
environment for people of color and those in search of a better life.

Men, women and children of all ages converged on downtown Atlanta for the
march and rally, cheering speakers while shading themselves with umbrellas
and posters from the blazing summer sun. Capitol police and organizers
estimated that between 8,000 and 14,000 protesters gathered. They filled
the blocks around the Capitol, holding signs decrying House Bill 87 and
reading “Immigration Reform Now!”

Friends Jessica Bamaca and Melany Cordero held a poster that read:
“How would you feel if your family got broken apart?”

And remember, HB 87 has many provisions that bring “customers”
to CCA’s ICE prison.

We don’t need to feed the incarceration machine with a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia.
Spend that tax money on rehabilitation and education instead.

-jsq