CoreCivic will not be submitting a response to the U.S. Immigration and Customs agency to build an immigration prison in Uinta County, the company announced. That’s welcome news for the ACLU of Wyoming and immigrants’ rights supporters across the state.
For the past two years, the ACLU has worked closely with organizations throughout the state as part of the grassroots WyoSayNo campaign, an effort to push back against the proposed immigration prison in Uinta County.
At times, the WyoSayNo campaign has felt like a losing fight. Despite public opposition to the proposed immigration prison, Uinta County Commissioners continually worked to ensure the prison would be built while neglecting to inform the community about what exactly they were been doing.
Sometimes, it felt like no matter what we did or said, they kept pushing forward. Earlier this year, Uinta County Commissioners even unanimously voted to pass a land transfer resolution authorizing the sale of county property for the prison.
So we’re thrilled that CoreCivic has withdrawn its plans to pursue an ICE contract to build an immigration prison outside of Evanston.
Private prison companies like CoreCivic put profit above lives, and an immigration prison would bring ICE closer to Wyoming’s Latino and immigrant communities, expanding its ability to prey on immigrants and break apart families in Wyoming.
CoreCivic is the second private prison company to rescind its plans to pursue a contract with ICE. Utah-based Management & Training Corporation withdrew its plans last summer. The immigration prison outside Evanston would have served ICE’s Utah-based operations and held up to 1,000 people as they awaited immigration court proceedings in Salt Lake City.
CoreCivic’s withdrawal doesn’t mean another private prison company won’t show interest in the area. Whatever happens, however, the ACLU of Wyoming will keep fighting alongside WyoSayNo supporters.
The ACLU of Wyoming is committed to fighting for the community we want – not the one private prison companies want. We are here to keep our families together, protect our rural communities, and to say Wyoming won’t detain for private gain.
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