CHICAGO (March 11, 2019)--This evening the village board of Dwight, Illinois, voted 5-2 to approve a for-profit immigration detention center proposed by Immigration Centers of America (ICA). The following is the statement of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights in response to the vote: 

“Immigration detention centers needlessly jail people who pose no threat to the community. For-profit detention centers add dangerous incentives to skimp on care and services for detainees and on pay and training for their workers. Despite these concerns, despite extensive research showing that prisons do not generate the economic benefits they claim, and despite overwhelming opposition by local residents and their allies throughout the region, the village board of Dwight voted to approve a for-profit immigration prison. ICIRR is deeply disappointed with this decision. 

"We will continue to work with the broad NoICEDwight coalition that worked so hard to advocate against this prison. We will explore other options to ensure that this facility will never be built, and continue to work at all levels of government to pass policies that welcome and respect immigrants." 

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