Corrections Corp. to Manage Georgia Prison

Corrections Corp. of America, which designs, builds and manages prisons, jails and detention facilities, said Monday it has received a contract to manage detainees for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at a Georgia facility.

Financial terms were not disclosed for the five-year contract at the North Georgia Detention Center in Hall County.

The facility has a capacity of 502 beds and Corrections Corp. of America will house up to 500 detainees. It said it will initially lease the former jail for 20 years with two five-year renewal options.

The Nashville, Tenn.-based company said it anticipates opening the facility in the second quarter and that it will be "substantially occupied" by the end of the year.

Corrections Corp. of America said it will employ about 160 correctional professionals in security, facility management, accounting, health services, human resources, business management and education.

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(AP)

Advocates urge undocumented immigrants: prepare a ‘go-bag’

Fear rippled through a group of Latino parents in suburban Chamblee, near Atlanta when a friend was deported to Mexico and temporarily separated from her two young U.S.-born children. The kids weren't able to immediately join her because she and her husband hadn't gotten passports for them.

More than nine months later, anxiety about being taken from their children is still palpable among the members of the support group for Spanish-speaking parents — most of them undocumented — of children with Down syndrome.

To guard against such separations — a widely decried effect of recent large-scale workplace raids — social workers and activists are urging undocumented immigrants to put together emergency kits similar to the kind emergency officials encourage people to keep in case of fire or natural disaster.

"Information is power," said Sonia Parras Konrad, a lawyer in Iowa who helped undocumented immigrants in the wake of a raid at the nation's largest kosher meatpacking plant in May. "If they know their rights and are prepared, they can be more in control of their lives and what happens to them."

The immigrants' kits include passports for U.S.-born children, contact info for an attorney, information on their legal rights and other material that can keep families together or help relatives retrieve a last paycheck.

Susy Martorell, a social worker and president of the board of the Hispanic Health Coalition of Georgia who has run the Down syndrome group for about 10 years, said the group's members are constantly preoccupied with their legal status. That prompted her to depart from the group's main focus on health issues once or twice a year to bring in an immigration lawyer.

At a meeting last month, the parents listened raptly, concern visible on their faces, as attorney Luis Alemany answered questions and offered advice. Alemany urged them to prepare for the detention of one or both parents by securing passports and having a well thought-out plan for who will care for the children and how the family will be reunited if the parents are deported.

"Guests like him help us a lot because we learn a lot about immigration law and what we can do to prepare in case something happens," group member Leticia Gonzalez said in Spanish.

A 42-year-old stay-at-home mom from Mexico who lives in the Atlanta area, Gonzalez said she and her construction worker husband have been even more nervous since a man her husband works with was arrested and deported two months ago. The couple, who entered the U.S. illegally and have lived here for 17 years, have been trying to make sure they have all of his papers in order, including records of U.S. taxes he's paid on his income. But she said they don't yet have passports for all of their six children, four of whom are American-born.

Immigrant rights activists in different parts of the country said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement seems to have stepped up its efforts in the last year or so, leading to more deportations. That seems to be supported by ICE removal numbers which have increased every year since 2003, the earliest year for which the agency provides numbers.

(The Associated Press)

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Feds detain illegal workers at Nat'l Infantry Museum

National Infantry Museum, under construction in June, 2007.
(Dave Bender)

Federal law-enforcement officials arrested 30 undocumented workers at Columbus's National Infantry Museum, under construction adjacent to Ft. Benning earlier this week.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained the construction workers at the site on Tuesday, Oct. 30. Agents caught two who tried to flee.

Museum spokesperson Cyndy Cerbin says the workers were not on the base itself:

“The National Infantry Museum is being built on property owned by the National Infantry Foundation, and it is not federal property – part of Ft. Benning.”

Ft. Benning's Public Affairs Office refused to comment on the case, and directed all inquires to Batson-Cook, general contractors for the museum.

Eddie Sanders, site project manager for Batson-Cook, says his company is cooperating with federal authorities on the case. Sanders says the workers were employed by subcontractors "to perform various trades on the project," and not by Batson-Cook:

"Batson-Cook files all federal, state and local laws, as well as our subcontractors regarding hiring practices."

Sanders says the workers "are innocent until proven guilty," and were not on Ft. Benning property at any time. He declined to name the subcontractors, only saying that, "Since they [ICE] are conducting an investigation, we would not be able to release that information at this time."

Project Executive Paul Meadows told the Ledger-Enquirer newspaper that those arrested worked as masons, fireproofing, and metal stud tradesmen and included local and out-of-town subcontractors.

Referring to the subcontractors, Sanders said, "There are several contractors we work with frequently," adding, "...they abide by the federal, state and local laws and regulations."

Sanders said that the number of workers, including subcontractors and employees on-site averaged "from 75 to 90 -- right around there. It kind of fluctuates from day-to-day."

Richard Rocha, a spokesman for ICE says the detainees are mostly from Mexico:

“Most of the people apprehended on Tuesday are from Mexico. There are 27 from Mexico, three from Guatemala, Those individuals will be processed throught the immigration court system...”

Seven of them were arraigned today, several on charges that included illegal re-entry, misuse of a social security number, and fraudulent use of an alien registration card, according to US Georgia Middle District attorney Max Wood in Macon.

The detainees were taken to the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, and will face deportation hearings in coming days.

The museum is set to open next year.

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