Immigrants For Sale

By on May 12, 2011 in News 18

This powerful animated video exposes how our immigrant community is being sold to private prisons for obscene profits.

Top three facts to know about private prisons (via immigrantsforsale.org):

  1. The victims: Private prisons don’t care about who they lock up. At a rate of $200 per immigrant a night at their prisons, this is a money making scheme that destroys families and lives.
  2. The players: CCA (Corrections Corporation of America), The Geo Group and Management and Training corporations—combined these private prisons currently profit more than $5 billion a year.
  3. The money: These private prisons have spent over $20 million lobbying state legislators to make sure they get state anti-immigrant laws approved and ensure access to more immigrant inmates.

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  • James T

    Who pays for it? Is it US tax dollars? 

  • DrDavidKelly

    Who pays for it? Is it US tax dollars? 

    • urza9814

       Yup. For immigration, the money generally comes from ICE, which is part of the DHS. 67% of the immigrants ICE locks up (a total of 30,000 every day) are contracted out to other facilities. So that’s around 20,000 people, at $200/night….gives around $4,000,000 of DHS’s budget going straight to these private prisons. Not to mention that the inmates frequently work while they’re locked up, and get paid about $1/day for that work. So they’re not just benefiting from the tax dollars, they’re also benefiting from the free labor.

      One other fact to note — not all of the people here are illegal. Not all of them are even immigrants. In at least one case a native born US citizen was locked up in Arizona for over a month. He had to work for $1/day to earn the $30 to purchase a copy of his birth certificate from the government to prove he was a legal citizen. So much for “innocent until proven guilty”….

      • http://www.jayurbzz.com jayurbzz

        and not just free labor, remember with the BP oil spill? BP got tax write-offs (what was it, $400?) per prisoner that went to cheaply/freely work on the clean up. makes me wonder about the prisons from which the prisoners were sent

    • Butter Knife

      That is precisely where the money comes from. Your state, federal and local taxes are being spent to keep people in prison, often at extremely high cost for even minor offenses.

      Drug prohibition and anti-immigration policies are both blatantly “Big Government” moves with extremley negative impacts on government budgets. Next time you see a politician rail against spending in one breath, then advocate for longer prison terms and stricter enforcement of petty crimes, consider that the only rational explanations are that they are a *complete* idiot or are simply lying.

  • Anonymous

     Yup. For immigration, the money generally comes from ICE, which is part of the DHS. 67% of the immigrants ICE locks up (a total of 30,000 every day) are contracted out to other facilities. So that’s around 20,000 people, at $200/night….gives around $4,000,000 of DHS’s budget going straight to these private prisons. Not to mention that the inmates frequently work while they’re locked up, and get paid about $1/day for that work. So they’re not just benefiting from the tax dollars, they’re also benefiting from the free labor.

    One other fact to note — not all of the people here are illegal. Not all of them are even immigrants. In at least one case a native born US citizen was locked up in Arizona for over a month. He had to work for $1/day to earn the $30 to purchase a copy of his birth certificate from the government to prove he was a legal citizen. So much for “innocent until proven guilty”….

  • Butter Knife

    That is precisely where the money comes from. Your state, federal and local taxes are being spent to keep people in prison, often at extremely high cost for even minor offenses.

    Drug prohibition and anti-immigration policies are both blatantly “Big Government” moves with extremley negative impacts on government budgets. Next time you see a politician rail against spending in one breath, then advocate for longer prison terms and stricter enforcement of petty crimes, consider that the only rational explanations are that they are a *complete* idiot or are simply lying.

  • Hadrian999

    where can i rent some Japanese girls?

  • Hadrian999

    where can i rent some Japanese girls?

    • MFly

      and the ever so prevalent random ignorance award goes to @Hadrian999:disqus , a staple of the online community 

      • Hadrian999

         I promised myself i wouldn’t cry…….you post and post and hope someday you’ll get your shot…….I’d like to thank the academy……and my fans

        • HA

          HA :)

  • Rex Vestri

    And don’t forget the failed War On Drugs, which also needlessly ruins lives and imprisons a shitload of people each year – at great taxpayer expense.

  • Rex Vestri

    And don’t forget the failed War On Drugs, which also needlessly ruins lives and imprisons a shitload of people each year – at great taxpayer expense.

  • MFly

    and the ever so prevalent random ignorance award goes to @Hadrian999:disqus , a staple of the online community 

  • Hadrian999

     I promised myself i wouldn’t cry…….you post and post and hope someday you’ll get your shot…….I’d like to thank the academy……and my fans

  • HA

    HA :)

  • http://www.jayurbzz.com jayurbzz

    and not just free labor, remember with the BP oil spill? BP got tax write-offs (what was it, $400?) per prisoner that went to cheaply/freely work on the clean up. makes me wonder about the prisons from which the prisoners were sent