An ICE Detention Center? You Picked the Wrong Town, Residents Say

Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=49701"><span class="small">Miriam Jordan, The New York Times</span></a>

Sunday, 01 March 2020 14:59

Jordan writes: "As an undocumented immigrant, Maribel Ramirez does not officially have a say in the affairs of the small agricultural town in California's Central Valley that she has called home for 20 years."

Maribel Ramirez, right, protested against the building of new immigration detention facilities in McFarland, Calif., during a public hearing on Tuesday. (photo: Jenna Schoenefeld/NYT)

An ICE Detention Center? You Picked the Wrong Town, Residents Say

By Miriam Jordan, The New York Times

01 March 20

A private prison company wants to operate an immigration detention center in McFarland, Calif., a town that is home to thousands of undocumented farm workers.

s an undocumented immigrant, Maribel Ramirez does not officially have a say in the affairs of the small agricultural town in California�s Central Valley that she has called home for 20 years.

But late into the night on Tuesday, she stood with hundreds of field workers and other residents outside McFarland�s City Council chambers, a bullhorn in her hand. �No ICE! No GEO! We�re farmworkers, not delinquents,� they chanted in Spanish, led by Ms. Ramirez, 42.

At issue was a multibillion-dollar corporation�s proposal to convert two state prisons slated for closure into detention centers for undocumented immigrants, operated under contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement � a plan that city leaders said could provide this impoverished town with a financial lifeline.

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