SEATTLE, WA – U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), ranking nominee on the Committee on Integrity, Security, and Immigration Enforcement, sent a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) Alejandro Mayorkas following her inspection of the Northwest Immigrant Processing Center (NWIPC), formerly the Northwest Detention Center, earlier this month. She urged Secretary Mayorkas to phase out Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) use of private, for-profit immigration detention facilities and to terminate the NWIPC’s contract with GEO Group when it expires next September.
“I have long found the use of for-profit prisons troubling – a concern shared by many of my colleagues in Congress,” Jayapal said. “As President Biden himself said in 2023, ‘There should be no private prisons, no private detention centers.’ Unfortunately (…) the use of private prisons in the immigration system has increased: In July 2023, 90.8 percent of people in immigration detention were held in detention centers owned or operated by private prison companies, up from 81 percent in 2020. The two largest for-profit companies, GEO and CoreCivic (…) collected $1 billion and $552 million, respectively, from ICE in 2022 alone.”
A number of disturbing allegations have been made against the NWIPC in the past, including:
- An August 2023 report detailing human rights violations at the center;
- A February 2024 report finding that the NWIPC and other immigration detention facilities routinely hold immigrants in solitary confinement for periods exceeding the 15-day limit set by the United Nations at which such detention constitutes torture;
- A report from April 2024 shows that 41 emergency calls were made from the emergency call center in a ten-week period that year.
- The tragic death of Charles Leo Daniel in March 2024 after spending a total of 1,418 days in solitary confinement; and
- A lawsuit filed in August 2024 by the Washington Department of Health demanding access to the facility after receiving over 700 complaints from inmates since April 2024.
Jayapal continued, “We have a responsibility to treat all people with dignity and fairness. All facilities operated by or associated with the U.S. government and funded by taxpayers should reflect this. Unfortunately, it is clear that facilities operated by private prison companies fall far short of our obligations. It is time we move away from using these for-profit companies.”
Jayapal has been a leader in efforts to end the use of private, for-profit detention facilities and instead significantly reduce our reliance on detention facilities and instead utilize humane, community-based alternatives to incarceration. She has lobbied DHS to demand the closure of facilities with records of abuse and has also advocated for accountability and transparency at those facilities. She has provided significant oversight of the Northwest Detention Center.
Jayapal is the sponsor of the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act, a groundbreaking bill that would fundamentally reform the immigration detention system by ending the use of for-profit, private detention facilities, eliminating mandatory detention, and protecting the civil and human rights of immigrants.
You can read the full text of the letter here.
Topics: Immigration
