In the racist furor that helped define the Bush era, immigrant detention has flourished. Its federal funding has doubled to $2.4 billion in the past four years.
The beneficiaries of the spending bonanza are private outfits like the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in mostly Latino Central Falls, R.I. Surrounded by poverty, the facility reaps millions in profits by holding detainees. Central Falls and other towns that are home to large populations of recent immigrants see their own residents either detained or intimidated into hiding or leaving.
Immigrants whose only crime is to work to support their families are often thrown in with violent offenders as part of the criminalization process. The persecution of immigrants brings windfalls not only to those who exploit their labor but also to those who incarcerate them. No worker, immigrant or not, has anything to gain from these racist policies.
