TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS PROFIT FROM BROKEN IMMIGRATION POLICY IN U.S.
Protestors monthly vigil aims to combat inhumane conditions in detention center
By Margie Thompson
February 7, 2011 - Aurora, Colorado/ The building is enormous, several hundred thousand square feet with small dark windows along the side, surrounded by high beam security lights and a tall chain link and barbed wire fence. It’s nearly zero degrees outside but one can only imagine the chill of high security prison for the 400 male and 100 female immigrants locked up inside the detention center in Aurora, Colorado. This is the second largest facility in the United States, and is owned by the GEO Corporation. Those imprisoned inside are dressed in color-coded uniforms according to "security risk," and may be locked up for weeks, months and even years, awaiting a decision of the immigration courts. The "inmates" must talk to any visitors through a glass shield, and they are not allowed to hold their children nor hug a spouse.
Monthly vigils take place at the site, organized by Coloradans for Immigrant Rights and the American Friends Service Committee. This month protestors read poems, sang songs, and chanted, with the hopes that those inside would know that someone outside cares about their fate, someone outside is opposed to the badly broken immigration system that locks up people without due process – no lawyers, no phone calls, separated from families who may or may not know their fate.
Also in attendance at the protest were members of the 10:30 Catholic Community, Comunidad Liberación, Denver Justice & Peace Committee, students from Regis University and Iliff School of Theology, members of the Higher Education Access Alliance, and the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialism Movement.
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| Karla, immigration activist: | ||
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Gabriela Flora, American Friends Service Committee: |
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| Suzy Q, poet: | ||
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The building is enormous, several hundred thousand square feet with small dark windows along the side
The facility is owned and operated by the GEO corporation, which makes $130 per day per immigrant locked up inside, with capacity for 600 more in its newly expanded facility. This company along with other private corrections corporations helped get the barbaric Arizona immigration law passed, and are pushing for the same in other states.
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