WEBVTT - Small Towns Are Getting Hooked on ICE Detention

0:00:02.680 --> 0:00:09.200
<v Speaker 1>Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.

0:00:10.600 --> 0:00:13.240
<v Speaker 2>Carol Barrios and her family moved to the US from

0:00:13.280 --> 0:00:17.000
<v Speaker 2>Honduras in the late nineties. Carol is a US citizen,

0:00:17.400 --> 0:00:21.360
<v Speaker 2>her dad has a green card. Seven years ago, Carol's

0:00:21.400 --> 0:00:24.799
<v Speaker 2>parents divorced and her dad went back to Honduras, but

0:00:24.880 --> 0:00:27.760
<v Speaker 2>this winter he decided to return to the States to

0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:29.200
<v Speaker 2>be closer to his grandkids.

0:00:29.560 --> 0:00:32.000
<v Speaker 3>That was his trigger for him to want to come

0:00:32.040 --> 0:00:34.239
<v Speaker 3>back to say, Okay, you know what he has been

0:00:34.360 --> 0:00:34.839
<v Speaker 3>missing on.

0:00:35.320 --> 0:00:38.640
<v Speaker 2>When Carol's dad landed in Miami in February, he was

0:00:38.680 --> 0:00:42.839
<v Speaker 2>detained by immigration authorities. His green card wasn't set to

0:00:42.920 --> 0:00:46.159
<v Speaker 2>expire until twenty twenty eight, but the agent said he

0:00:46.280 --> 0:00:49.159
<v Speaker 2>hadn't filed the proper paperwork to re enter the country

0:00:49.280 --> 0:00:53.159
<v Speaker 2>after those seven years abroad. The next few weeks were

0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:56.360
<v Speaker 2>a blur. Carol desperately tried to track her dad's movements

0:00:56.400 --> 0:00:59.640
<v Speaker 2>as he was transferred from one facility to another. And

0:00:59.680 --> 0:01:02.920
<v Speaker 2>then Carol got a phone call. It was her dad.

0:01:03.720 --> 0:01:04.880
<v Speaker 2>He didn't know where he was.

0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:08.880
<v Speaker 3>He asked me if I knew where the call was

0:01:08.920 --> 0:01:11.479
<v Speaker 3>coming from, and then I told him I will querque

0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:12.120
<v Speaker 3>New Mexico.

0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:15.240
<v Speaker 2>He had been flown to Albuquerque and then bussed about

0:01:15.240 --> 0:01:18.200
<v Speaker 2>an hour to the small town of Estancia, New Mexico,

0:01:18.800 --> 0:01:22.200
<v Speaker 2>and he was being held in the Torrance County Detention Facility,

0:01:22.680 --> 0:01:26.319
<v Speaker 2>a private detention facility that's holding people in ICE custody

0:01:26.480 --> 0:01:28.160
<v Speaker 2>from all over the country.

0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:31.960
<v Speaker 4>Under prior administrations. This is also how things worked, right.

0:01:32.680 --> 0:01:35.839
<v Speaker 4>What's different this time is that there are so many

0:01:35.920 --> 0:01:39.600
<v Speaker 4>arrests and the Trump admintration is detaining so many people

0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:43.120
<v Speaker 4>that it's using, in some cases more beds than it

0:01:43.160 --> 0:01:43.640
<v Speaker 4>even has.

0:01:44.160 --> 0:01:48.000
<v Speaker 2>ICE is finding those extra beds in private detention facilities

0:01:48.040 --> 0:01:51.080
<v Speaker 2>like the one in Torrance County, and it's contracting with

0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:55.040
<v Speaker 2>local governments to get access to them. Bloomberg reporters Fola

0:01:55.080 --> 0:01:58.040
<v Speaker 2>at Kenneby and Rachel Adams heard have been reporting on

0:01:58.080 --> 0:02:01.440
<v Speaker 2>this facility in rural New Mexico and on its relationship

0:02:01.480 --> 0:02:05.320
<v Speaker 2>with ICE ever since Trump took office, because as the

0:02:05.360 --> 0:02:10.160
<v Speaker 2>administration seeks to carry out mass deportations, these kinds of

0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:14.840
<v Speaker 2>private detention contracts are becoming more central to its immigration agenda.

0:02:16.040 --> 0:02:20.200
<v Speaker 5>For ICE to be able to quickly execute this type

0:02:20.200 --> 0:02:24.840
<v Speaker 5>of detention strategy, it really is dependent on these agreements

0:02:24.919 --> 0:02:26.400
<v Speaker 5>with counties.

0:02:26.280 --> 0:02:29.959
<v Speaker 2>And that means convincing more towns like Estancia that ice

0:02:30.160 --> 0:02:35.760
<v Speaker 2>can be their lifeblood. This is the big take from

0:02:35.800 --> 0:02:40.000
<v Speaker 2>Bloomberg News. I'm Sarah Holder today on the show Inside

0:02:40.040 --> 0:02:44.239
<v Speaker 2>a Town That Runs on Ice. How private detention facilities

0:02:44.240 --> 0:02:47.840
<v Speaker 2>across America are becoming key to the federal government's immigration

0:02:48.000 --> 0:02:51.959
<v Speaker 2>crackdown and the financial incentives making it harder for small

0:02:51.960 --> 0:03:01.840
<v Speaker 2>communities to quit them. Astancia, New Mexico, is a town

0:03:01.919 --> 0:03:05.480
<v Speaker 2>of about thirteen hundred residents. One hundred years ago, it

0:03:05.520 --> 0:03:07.400
<v Speaker 2>was a lively agricultural hub.

0:03:07.880 --> 0:03:10.440
<v Speaker 5>The railroad went straight through the town, so you had

0:03:10.480 --> 0:03:13.480
<v Speaker 5>people in commerce stopping through. This in turn, brought a

0:03:13.520 --> 0:03:14.760
<v Speaker 5>lot of business to the area.

0:03:15.200 --> 0:03:17.560
<v Speaker 1>Back in the eighties when I graduated, there was a

0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:22.400
<v Speaker 1>movie theater, a vehicle dealership, three or four bars.

0:03:23.320 --> 0:03:26.760
<v Speaker 2>I mean that's the town's mayor, Nathan Dile. When Rachel

0:03:26.800 --> 0:03:29.280
<v Speaker 2>and Fula visited in March, he gave them a tour.

0:03:29.720 --> 0:03:32.720
<v Speaker 1>The footprint of Stanchees are basically one mile by one mile.

0:03:33.240 --> 0:03:35.760
<v Speaker 4>You don't really have to drive far in Astancia. There's

0:03:35.760 --> 0:03:38.600
<v Speaker 4>a bunch of churches, a lot of abandoned like storefronts,

0:03:38.600 --> 0:03:39.760
<v Speaker 4>a lot of abandoned shops.

0:03:40.200 --> 0:03:44.600
<v Speaker 2>Astoncia today is not the agricultural or commercial hub it

0:03:44.640 --> 0:03:48.880
<v Speaker 2>once was. In the nineteen thirties, droughts decimated crops and

0:03:48.920 --> 0:03:52.960
<v Speaker 2>sent property values plummeting. And then a few decades later,

0:03:53.400 --> 0:03:55.640
<v Speaker 2>Interstate forty was built.

0:03:55.360 --> 0:03:57.960
<v Speaker 5>And so all of the commerce that had kind of

0:03:58.040 --> 0:04:02.360
<v Speaker 5>gone through the town because of the railroad, it's now

0:04:02.400 --> 0:04:07.080
<v Speaker 5>going just north of town along I forty. And this

0:04:07.160 --> 0:04:10.720
<v Speaker 5>is kind of what Nathan Dial likes to equate to

0:04:10.960 --> 0:04:12.520
<v Speaker 5>the Pixar movie Cars.

0:04:13.080 --> 0:04:16.400
<v Speaker 1>That's not a cartoon, it's a documentary in Cars.

0:04:16.640 --> 0:04:20.480
<v Speaker 5>Radiator Springs the town, it's on the historic Route sixty six.

0:04:21.000 --> 0:04:24.240
<v Speaker 5>Interstate forty is built, and all of a sudden, the

0:04:24.279 --> 0:04:27.560
<v Speaker 5>town just kind of falls into disrepair. And it's of

0:04:27.600 --> 0:04:31.279
<v Speaker 5>course saved when Lightning McQueen moves his racing headquarters there.

0:04:31.640 --> 0:04:38.200
<v Speaker 5>For Astoncia, their revitalization came through Corrections Corporation of America

0:04:38.640 --> 0:04:40.080
<v Speaker 5>now Corcivic.

0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:45.200
<v Speaker 2>Corcivic is the company that runs the Torrence County Detention Facility.

0:04:45.600 --> 0:04:49.000
<v Speaker 2>It provided the Lightning McQueen boost. Astancia was looking for

0:04:49.440 --> 0:04:51.600
<v Speaker 2>as the War on drugs and the expansion of pre

0:04:51.720 --> 0:04:54.520
<v Speaker 2>trial detention sent incarceration rates up.

0:04:54.760 --> 0:04:58.880
<v Speaker 5>That's all really good for Corcivic's main business. But then

0:04:59.279 --> 0:05:03.280
<v Speaker 5>kind of during the Obama era when we have sentencing reform,

0:05:03.600 --> 0:05:05.120
<v Speaker 5>those numbers start to drop.

0:05:05.320 --> 0:05:08.600
<v Speaker 2>By twenty seventeen, the number of people Corcivic was holding

0:05:08.640 --> 0:05:11.640
<v Speaker 2>on behalf of the federal government had dropped so sharply

0:05:11.800 --> 0:05:15.359
<v Speaker 2>that the company decided to close the facility down. But

0:05:15.440 --> 0:05:19.800
<v Speaker 2>then just two years later, in twenty nineteen, ICE swooped in.

0:05:20.600 --> 0:05:22.320
<v Speaker 2>They wanted to use some of the beds in the

0:05:22.320 --> 0:05:26.800
<v Speaker 2>new Mexico facility to detain immigrants. So ICE inked a

0:05:26.880 --> 0:05:31.600
<v Speaker 2>deal not with Corcivic, but with Torrence County itself.

0:05:31.680 --> 0:05:35.799
<v Speaker 4>So essentially for Torrence County their party to what's called

0:05:35.880 --> 0:05:41.279
<v Speaker 4>an intergovernmental service agreement. It says that ICE or the

0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:45.560
<v Speaker 4>US Marshals will pay the county as like an administrator

0:05:45.680 --> 0:05:49.280
<v Speaker 4>of this deal, and they'll be able to use the

0:05:49.279 --> 0:05:52.599
<v Speaker 4>beds in the facility, and so they pay like a

0:05:52.640 --> 0:05:54.560
<v Speaker 4>per person, per day rate.

0:05:55.120 --> 0:05:58.520
<v Speaker 2>ICE started paying Torrence County about two million dollars a

0:05:58.560 --> 0:06:01.440
<v Speaker 2>month to use around seven hundred beds in the facility,

0:06:02.000 --> 0:06:06.279
<v Speaker 2>and cor Civic was back in business in Estancia. Now,

0:06:06.440 --> 0:06:09.839
<v Speaker 2>under President Trump's second term, ICE is sending people at

0:06:09.920 --> 0:06:13.720
<v Speaker 2>arrests hundreds of miles away to this facility. Because as

0:06:13.760 --> 0:06:18.360
<v Speaker 2>ICE pursues the administration's mass deportation agenda, the agency has

0:06:18.400 --> 0:06:22.800
<v Speaker 2>widened its enforcement priorities, targeting people with green carts, people

0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:26.239
<v Speaker 2>who've lived in the US for years, people like Carol

0:06:26.320 --> 0:06:30.479
<v Speaker 2>Barrios's dad, And while past administrations have used discretion to

0:06:30.560 --> 0:06:34.560
<v Speaker 2>release people ahead of their immigration hearings, Trump's policy has

0:06:34.600 --> 0:06:38.320
<v Speaker 2>been to detain them. ICE now needs a lot more

0:06:38.400 --> 0:06:42.240
<v Speaker 2>detention space, So the federal government is finding new counties

0:06:42.320 --> 0:06:44.720
<v Speaker 2>to sign the same types of agreements as the one

0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:45.920
<v Speaker 2>in Torrance County.

0:06:46.320 --> 0:06:48.520
<v Speaker 4>It's happening all over the country. There are like well

0:06:48.600 --> 0:06:52.040
<v Speaker 4>over one hundred of these agreements. Like this is how

0:06:52.200 --> 0:06:55.000
<v Speaker 4>ICE like gets medspace. There are not very many ICE

0:06:55.040 --> 0:06:58.599
<v Speaker 4>owned facilities, and so this is how they are able

0:06:58.640 --> 0:07:01.600
<v Speaker 4>to quickly get and fill beds.

0:07:01.720 --> 0:07:05.200
<v Speaker 2>And the numbers are only growing. Since Trump retook office

0:07:05.200 --> 0:07:08.440
<v Speaker 2>in January, the federal government has arranged new agreements with

0:07:08.480 --> 0:07:12.280
<v Speaker 2>about thirty US counties to use their jails to detain immigrants,

0:07:12.800 --> 0:07:15.200
<v Speaker 2>and ICE wants to spend up to forty five billion

0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:19.720
<v Speaker 2>dollars more on these detention contracts for ICE, the arrangement

0:07:19.760 --> 0:07:24.000
<v Speaker 2>in Torrance County makes its job easier. Cour Civic handles staffing,

0:07:24.680 --> 0:07:28.560
<v Speaker 2>and working directly with county governments helps ICE move faster.

0:07:29.080 --> 0:07:32.040
<v Speaker 2>The agency doesn't have to enter a competitive bidding process

0:07:32.080 --> 0:07:34.920
<v Speaker 2>to decide who gets the contract or do all the

0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:37.000
<v Speaker 2>paperwork that comes with that process.

0:07:37.280 --> 0:07:40.160
<v Speaker 4>The county government is sort of smoothing this process for

0:07:40.240 --> 0:07:43.680
<v Speaker 4>both the federal government and for the private prison company.

0:07:43.920 --> 0:07:47.360
<v Speaker 2>The county has a reason to sign these detention deals too.

0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:51.680
<v Speaker 4>They pay taxes, they provide jobs to some of these deals.

0:07:51.440 --> 0:07:54.640
<v Speaker 4>There's an administrative fee that they pay the county as well,

0:07:54.880 --> 0:07:57.720
<v Speaker 4>and in the case of Torrens County, they also get

0:07:58.280 --> 0:08:02.280
<v Speaker 4>beds for their local detainees. And they say that without

0:08:02.360 --> 0:08:04.760
<v Speaker 4>this they would have to take people to Santa Fe,

0:08:05.080 --> 0:08:06.960
<v Speaker 4>which is like an hour and a half or two

0:08:07.000 --> 0:08:08.360
<v Speaker 4>hours away. It's a long drive.

0:08:08.840 --> 0:08:12.240
<v Speaker 2>ICE is now paying Torrents County two point three million

0:08:12.280 --> 0:08:15.120
<v Speaker 2>dollars a month to use five hundred and five bets,

0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:18.440
<v Speaker 2>and course Civic gets paid more if the agency uses

0:08:18.480 --> 0:08:22.000
<v Speaker 2>more than that. The facility employs about one hundred people

0:08:22.120 --> 0:08:22.960
<v Speaker 2>county wide.

0:08:23.160 --> 0:08:26.560
<v Speaker 1>My sisters worked out there, my son's worked out there,

0:08:26.640 --> 0:08:29.760
<v Speaker 1>my daughter's worked out there, my nephews have worked out there.

0:08:30.320 --> 0:08:32.439
<v Speaker 2>That's the mayor of Astancia again, and I.

0:08:32.400 --> 0:08:38.240
<v Speaker 6>Will admit me, Nathan Dial, I fought them having a

0:08:38.240 --> 0:08:41.240
<v Speaker 6>private prison because of all the things that government should

0:08:41.240 --> 0:08:44.680
<v Speaker 6>be running, it should be prisoned. That's my personal opinion.

0:08:45.360 --> 0:08:48.320
<v Speaker 6>But as mayor, I understand it's the lifeblood of the town.

0:08:49.200 --> 0:08:52.880
<v Speaker 5>He views it as a financial necessity for the town

0:08:53.080 --> 0:08:56.679
<v Speaker 5>and his residence. And we looked at the town's tax

0:08:56.720 --> 0:09:00.400
<v Speaker 5>revenue and it does make up a significant portion of

0:09:00.720 --> 0:09:03.400
<v Speaker 5>what's called the grocer seats tax, which is kind of

0:09:03.440 --> 0:09:05.520
<v Speaker 5>like New Mexico's version of a sales tax.

0:09:05.559 --> 0:09:09.040
<v Speaker 2>Almost when Rachel and Fola were in Estancia, they drove

0:09:09.120 --> 0:09:11.359
<v Speaker 2>up to the facility to see it from the outside.

0:09:12.120 --> 0:09:15.480
<v Speaker 5>Of course, a Victorren's County detention facility.

0:09:15.559 --> 0:09:20.040
<v Speaker 4>If it's fifteen feet yeah, the facility isn't sort of

0:09:20.040 --> 0:09:23.400
<v Speaker 4>within that small mile by mile like city limit. Instead,

0:09:23.480 --> 0:09:26.120
<v Speaker 4>it's like off like a side road. And then you

0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:29.400
<v Speaker 4>just see this huge complex that's surrounded by razor wire

0:09:29.720 --> 0:09:32.560
<v Speaker 4>and huge fences and there's nothing else really around it.

0:09:32.679 --> 0:09:34.680
<v Speaker 2>And inside the facility, I want to make sure we

0:09:34.720 --> 0:09:37.640
<v Speaker 2>talk about the conditions inside. What are unblematic stories you

0:09:37.760 --> 0:09:40.040
<v Speaker 2>heard from people being detained there.

0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:44.760
<v Speaker 5>Some common complaints I've heard are it's kept excessively cold,

0:09:45.000 --> 0:09:50.320
<v Speaker 5>that the food is undercooked, sometimes inedible, that there isn't

0:09:50.440 --> 0:09:55.160
<v Speaker 5>enough of it at times, pretty constant complaints about understaffing,

0:09:55.200 --> 0:09:57.920
<v Speaker 5>that there aren't enough people working at the detention facility.

0:09:58.200 --> 0:10:01.439
<v Speaker 5>And this is something that federal and have found several

0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:02.800
<v Speaker 5>times in the past as well.

0:10:03.400 --> 0:10:06.200
<v Speaker 2>In March of twenty twenty two, the Inspector General for

0:10:06.240 --> 0:10:09.320
<v Speaker 2>the Department of Homeland Security urged all people in ICE

0:10:09.360 --> 0:10:12.400
<v Speaker 2>custody to be removed from the facility due to critical

0:10:12.480 --> 0:10:17.720
<v Speaker 2>staffing shortages. Corcivic disputed the inspector's findings, and ICE largely

0:10:17.760 --> 0:10:18.880
<v Speaker 2>sided with Corcivic.

0:10:19.160 --> 0:10:22.400
<v Speaker 5>So it's an interesting situation where you do have these

0:10:22.720 --> 0:10:26.360
<v Speaker 5>federal inspections and audits that have pinpointed issues, but there

0:10:26.960 --> 0:10:31.360
<v Speaker 5>really hasn't been punishment. The punishment that was recommended did

0:10:31.360 --> 0:10:32.520
<v Speaker 5>not actually end up happening.

0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:36.400
<v Speaker 2>ICE didn't evacuate the facility, but later that year it

0:10:36.440 --> 0:10:39.200
<v Speaker 2>did agree to a series of other recommendations from the

0:10:39.200 --> 0:10:44.520
<v Speaker 2>Inspector General. Corcivic says it's quote committed to providing safe, humane,

0:10:44.559 --> 0:10:47.680
<v Speaker 2>and appropriate care for the people in its facilities. It

0:10:47.720 --> 0:10:50.920
<v Speaker 2>says all detainees have access to health care services and

0:10:51.000 --> 0:10:55.120
<v Speaker 2>disputes allegations of staffing shortages. It also pointed to recent

0:10:55.160 --> 0:10:58.480
<v Speaker 2>audits by the ICE Office of Detention Oversight, which gave

0:10:58.520 --> 0:11:01.880
<v Speaker 2>the Torrens County Detention Facility good ratings in the twenty

0:11:01.880 --> 0:11:05.480
<v Speaker 2>twenty four fiscal year and superior ratings in the twenty

0:11:05.520 --> 0:11:06.679
<v Speaker 2>twenty five fiscal year.

0:11:06.920 --> 0:11:10.600
<v Speaker 4>I just quickly add that the Trump administration has recently

0:11:10.920 --> 0:11:14.600
<v Speaker 4>significantly rolled back some of these oversight functions. In March,

0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:18.600
<v Speaker 4>the administration eliminated the two bodies that are responsible for

0:11:18.679 --> 0:11:22.160
<v Speaker 4>doing some of the site visits and inspections of these facilities.

0:11:22.520 --> 0:11:25.440
<v Speaker 2>The conditions of the detention facility have also gotten the

0:11:25.440 --> 0:11:29.320
<v Speaker 2>attention of local advocates. New Mexico is a blue state

0:11:29.520 --> 0:11:33.920
<v Speaker 2>and its role in advancing deportation policy makes many residents uncomfortable.

0:11:34.520 --> 0:11:37.400
<v Speaker 2>So some are now pushing the county to envision an

0:11:37.440 --> 0:11:42.679
<v Speaker 2>economic future beyond immigration detention and end its contract with ICE.

0:11:43.760 --> 0:11:46.760
<v Speaker 2>Every few months, the Torrence County Commissioners have to vote

0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:50.520
<v Speaker 2>on whether to extend the agreement. The last vote happened

0:11:50.559 --> 0:11:51.200
<v Speaker 2>in March.

0:11:51.400 --> 0:11:53.480
<v Speaker 5>Are y'all here for the county commission meeting?

0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:56.440
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, Fulla and Rachel were in the room.

0:11:56.760 --> 0:11:59.040
<v Speaker 4>Being at the meeting, we saw more than a dozen

0:11:59.080 --> 0:12:03.840
<v Speaker 4>people read testimony from inside the facility, Folks talking about

0:12:03.880 --> 0:12:07.160
<v Speaker 4>the conditions, talking about their feelings of hopelessness. They have

0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:09.960
<v Speaker 4>treated me like a prisoner, not like a migrant, the

0:12:10.040 --> 0:12:13.880
<v Speaker 4>lack of food, the lack of communication with ICE officials,

0:12:13.920 --> 0:12:16.880
<v Speaker 4>the lack of communication about their cases, and second thirty.

0:12:16.640 --> 0:12:19.160
<v Speaker 2>Three birds which there is no adequate medical.

0:12:18.920 --> 0:12:21.479
<v Speaker 4>Carrier though I had to wait three and a half.

0:12:21.240 --> 0:12:24.120
<v Speaker 7>Hours, almost four hours for an ambulance to arrive so

0:12:24.160 --> 0:12:25.599
<v Speaker 7>they could take me outside.

0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:28.440
<v Speaker 5>You all are in the extraordinary position where you have

0:12:28.480 --> 0:12:32.080
<v Speaker 5>the opportunity to intervene in the system of harm. I

0:12:32.160 --> 0:12:34.080
<v Speaker 5>urge you all to vote against the extension of the

0:12:34.080 --> 0:12:35.800
<v Speaker 5>contract with ICE. Thank you.

0:12:39.200 --> 0:12:42.680
<v Speaker 2>After the break, Torrance County's leaders vote on its contract

0:12:42.720 --> 0:12:45.360
<v Speaker 2>with ICE, and we meet one of the County commissioners

0:12:45.400 --> 0:12:56.959
<v Speaker 2>who's weighing in on the facility's fate. Linda Haramio is

0:12:57.000 --> 0:13:00.720
<v Speaker 2>the newest member of the Torrence County Commission as a Republican,

0:13:00.920 --> 0:13:03.920
<v Speaker 2>the only woman and the only Spanish speaker on the commission.

0:13:04.720 --> 0:13:07.320
<v Speaker 2>Back in March, at the County Commission meeting, she was

0:13:07.360 --> 0:13:10.160
<v Speaker 2>preparing to cast her vote on whether to extend the

0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:14.199
<v Speaker 2>county's contract with Ice through October first.

0:13:13.920 --> 0:13:17.040
<v Speaker 4>Approval of Montaians the inter government wal room in Florence

0:13:17.080 --> 0:13:18.560
<v Speaker 4>County the United States to part.

0:13:18.440 --> 0:13:19.520
<v Speaker 5>The immigration of Preston.

0:13:19.679 --> 0:13:22.920
<v Speaker 4>She before her votes, took some time to say, like, look,

0:13:23.440 --> 0:13:24.200
<v Speaker 4>I hear you guys.

0:13:24.320 --> 0:13:24.840
<v Speaker 5>So I've been.

0:13:24.760 --> 0:13:29.560
<v Speaker 7>Listening to these accounts of restreatment at the prison.

0:13:29.760 --> 0:13:31.520
<v Speaker 4>She said, I need to go see this myself, like

0:13:31.559 --> 0:13:33.920
<v Speaker 4>I'm not sure this is true or if this is

0:13:33.920 --> 0:13:34.440
<v Speaker 4>actually what's.

0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:37.120
<v Speaker 3>Happening, and I want is it okay if I visit

0:13:37.160 --> 0:13:37.600
<v Speaker 3>the prison.

0:13:38.280 --> 0:13:40.280
<v Speaker 2>So she visited, and then she voted no, she did

0:13:40.320 --> 0:13:40.720
<v Speaker 2>not visit.

0:13:40.880 --> 0:13:43.400
<v Speaker 4>She said she would like to visit, but in the

0:13:43.440 --> 0:13:44.600
<v Speaker 4>meantime she'll vote yes.

0:13:45.520 --> 0:13:48.480
<v Speaker 5>So I'm going to vote for this today.

0:13:48.600 --> 0:13:50.720
<v Speaker 7>I'm not going to do it, but I'd like to

0:13:50.760 --> 0:13:52.640
<v Speaker 7>have more interaction with these teams.

0:13:52.720 --> 0:13:56.000
<v Speaker 4>And so she voted for the extension, and so it

0:13:56.040 --> 0:13:56.840
<v Speaker 4>passed three zero.

0:13:57.000 --> 0:14:01.400
<v Speaker 2>Unanousley, Rachel and Fulla spoke to Harameo at after the vote.

0:14:01.800 --> 0:14:04.080
<v Speaker 2>They wanted to know how she came to her decision.

0:14:04.440 --> 0:14:06.120
<v Speaker 5>We were sitting on the porch with her. It was

0:14:06.160 --> 0:14:08.080
<v Speaker 5>a breezy day. You can kind of hear the wind.

0:14:08.160 --> 0:14:12.000
<v Speaker 5>Chimes was the decision on the ice contract hard today.

0:14:12.520 --> 0:14:15.560
<v Speaker 7>Yes, but I know we had to vote on it.

0:14:17.800 --> 0:14:21.640
<v Speaker 7>I don't want anybody to be treated cruelly, and I

0:14:21.680 --> 0:14:23.680
<v Speaker 7>don't even know if that's true or not.

0:14:24.520 --> 0:14:29.480
<v Speaker 5>Do you think that the detainees that you've heard from

0:14:28.920 --> 0:14:30.640
<v Speaker 5>are making it up?

0:14:31.040 --> 0:14:34.440
<v Speaker 7>No, I don't think they're making it up, but they

0:14:35.160 --> 0:14:38.120
<v Speaker 7>I just can't imagine that anybody would be treating somebody

0:14:38.160 --> 0:14:41.440
<v Speaker 7>like that. I'm not saying they're liars or anything, but

0:14:42.920 --> 0:14:46.120
<v Speaker 7>I know the people that work there, I mean, what

0:14:46.240 --> 0:14:47.560
<v Speaker 7>happens from.

0:14:47.480 --> 0:14:50.200
<v Speaker 2>In the time since her vote, Haramia told Rachel she

0:14:50.320 --> 0:14:53.080
<v Speaker 2>did visit the facility to see things for herself.

0:14:53.360 --> 0:14:55.240
<v Speaker 5>This wasn't a surprise visit. They had a couple of

0:14:55.320 --> 0:14:58.520
<v Speaker 5>days heads up and the warden was with her during

0:14:58.560 --> 0:15:01.960
<v Speaker 5>the tour. She said that in general things look clean.

0:15:02.160 --> 0:15:05.520
<v Speaker 5>She said the detainees complained about food, and one person

0:15:05.600 --> 0:15:09.160
<v Speaker 5>said that he had a headache that he needed treatment for,

0:15:09.560 --> 0:15:13.000
<v Speaker 5>but in general she felt like things were run efficiently.

0:15:14.440 --> 0:15:16.840
<v Speaker 2>In a few months, Haramio will have the chance to

0:15:16.920 --> 0:15:18.840
<v Speaker 2>vote on the contract extension again.

0:15:19.120 --> 0:15:22.760
<v Speaker 5>I asked her if she was thinking any differently about

0:15:22.800 --> 0:15:25.880
<v Speaker 5>the October vote, and she said, you know, I'm very torn.

0:15:26.200 --> 0:15:29.400
<v Speaker 5>I'm really really torn. So I think we'll see what

0:15:29.480 --> 0:15:32.400
<v Speaker 5>she decides. The next time she'll have the opportunity to

0:15:32.440 --> 0:15:35.160
<v Speaker 5>vote on this. Even if she votes no, they would

0:15:35.200 --> 0:15:38.320
<v Speaker 5>need another commissioner to vote no for the contract between

0:15:38.320 --> 0:15:39.800
<v Speaker 5>the county and ICE to be terminated.

0:15:40.120 --> 0:15:43.560
<v Speaker 2>That's never happened before. Every time they vote, the county

0:15:43.640 --> 0:15:46.240
<v Speaker 2>chooses to maintain its relationship with ICE.

0:15:46.600 --> 0:15:50.800
<v Speaker 5>There is this financial dependence on Courcivic right now and

0:15:50.880 --> 0:15:53.040
<v Speaker 5>on the ICE contract by extension.

0:15:53.600 --> 0:15:57.320
<v Speaker 2>Research shows that prison construction can actually impede economic growth

0:15:57.360 --> 0:16:00.480
<v Speaker 2>in rural areas. One study from twenty ten, looking at

0:16:00.480 --> 0:16:04.360
<v Speaker 2>the economic impact of prison economies over nearly thirty year period,

0:16:04.760 --> 0:16:08.040
<v Speaker 2>found that these facilities can divert resources away from other

0:16:08.080 --> 0:16:13.000
<v Speaker 2>community services, making these areas less attractive for other economic development.

0:16:13.760 --> 0:16:16.960
<v Speaker 2>But Rachel says it's hard for communities like Estancia to

0:16:17.040 --> 0:16:21.320
<v Speaker 2>imagine untethering their economies from incarceration once they're hooked.

0:16:21.680 --> 0:16:25.120
<v Speaker 5>Most of the people we spoke with seem to accept

0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:27.840
<v Speaker 5>that this was just the way it was going to be.

0:16:28.320 --> 0:16:31.680
<v Speaker 5>There are a lot of local communities all across the

0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:35.440
<v Speaker 5>country that do have a tremendous amount of power when

0:16:35.480 --> 0:16:40.800
<v Speaker 5>it comes to how immigrants in ICE custody are treated

0:16:41.240 --> 0:16:45.320
<v Speaker 5>where they are taken, and I think that role is

0:16:46.480 --> 0:16:48.360
<v Speaker 5>vastly overlooked in this debate.

0:16:48.720 --> 0:16:52.000
<v Speaker 4>We asked, like, administrations change and policies change, and there

0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:55.120
<v Speaker 4>could be a scenario where a new administration or even

0:16:55.160 --> 0:16:58.000
<v Speaker 4>this administration decides that they don't need this facility, and

0:16:58.200 --> 0:17:00.080
<v Speaker 4>if it closes, do you have a plan for or

0:17:00.120 --> 0:17:02.920
<v Speaker 4>what's next? And I don't think at any point we

0:17:03.040 --> 0:17:05.760
<v Speaker 4>got a serious answer. I don't think it was something

0:17:05.800 --> 0:17:07.280
<v Speaker 4>that folks had considered there.

0:17:08.119 --> 0:17:11.760
<v Speaker 2>For people like Carol Barrios's father. The latest ICE contract

0:17:11.800 --> 0:17:16.320
<v Speaker 2>extension means continuation of the status quo, and advocates and

0:17:16.359 --> 0:17:20.679
<v Speaker 2>people inside the detention facility say conditions there deteriorated a

0:17:20.680 --> 0:17:24.560
<v Speaker 2>few weeks ago, when water supply issues reportedly left toilets

0:17:24.560 --> 0:17:28.040
<v Speaker 2>overflowing and feces on the ground and led to limits

0:17:28.040 --> 0:17:29.879
<v Speaker 2>on people's access to drinking water.

0:17:30.240 --> 0:17:32.520
<v Speaker 5>People in detention were told that they were limited to

0:17:32.720 --> 0:17:36.480
<v Speaker 5>two water bottles a day at times, and we heard

0:17:36.720 --> 0:17:39.520
<v Speaker 5>that people were going days without showers.

0:17:40.160 --> 0:17:43.240
<v Speaker 2>In emails, Corsevic said there were no sewage or plumbing

0:17:43.240 --> 0:17:46.399
<v Speaker 2>issues at the facility, and that water pressure fluctuations had

0:17:46.440 --> 0:17:50.800
<v Speaker 2>caused some toilets to overflow in quote a few rare occasions.

0:17:51.119 --> 0:17:53.879
<v Speaker 2>They also said showers were placed on a schedule, but

0:17:53.960 --> 0:17:57.920
<v Speaker 2>were still available to everyone. After Fola and Rachel published

0:17:57.920 --> 0:18:00.760
<v Speaker 2>their story, an ICE spokeswoman at it in a statement

0:18:00.840 --> 0:18:04.200
<v Speaker 2>that the agency acknowledges the concerns raised about the facility

0:18:04.480 --> 0:18:07.440
<v Speaker 2>and remains quote committed to addressing them in a timely

0:18:07.520 --> 0:18:12.639
<v Speaker 2>and transparent manner. Carol's been emailing ICE and coercivic to

0:18:12.720 --> 0:18:15.960
<v Speaker 2>raise the alarm about conditions in the facility. She even

0:18:16.000 --> 0:18:19.120
<v Speaker 2>flew to New Mexico to visit her father. He told

0:18:19.119 --> 0:18:22.080
<v Speaker 2>her the facility smells awful and that he'd gone days

0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:26.000
<v Speaker 2>without showering, and now they're hundreds of miles apart, again

0:18:26.320 --> 0:18:28.400
<v Speaker 2>anxiously awaiting his next court date.

0:18:29.080 --> 0:18:31.520
<v Speaker 4>This is example of who is being targeted in and

0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:35.480
<v Speaker 4>how widespread and how sort of blanket the administration's efforts

0:18:35.480 --> 0:18:37.880
<v Speaker 4>to detain and the poor people are.

0:18:38.040 --> 0:18:41.120
<v Speaker 5>It's a tremendous amount of money that's changing hands through

0:18:41.200 --> 0:18:44.840
<v Speaker 5>these local governments to private prison companies a lot of time,

0:18:45.200 --> 0:18:47.679
<v Speaker 5>and there's a lot less scrutiny of it because of

0:18:47.680 --> 0:18:49.680
<v Speaker 5>the way that these contracts are done.

0:18:54.200 --> 0:18:57.080
<v Speaker 2>This is the big take from Bloomberg News. I'm Sarah Holder.

0:18:57.800 --> 0:19:00.720
<v Speaker 2>To see photographs from on the ground in Ancia and

0:19:00.840 --> 0:19:03.480
<v Speaker 2>view maps showing how many people ICE is now sending

0:19:03.520 --> 0:19:06.800
<v Speaker 2>to New Mexico. Read the full story on Bloomberg dot

0:19:06.840 --> 0:19:09.720
<v Speaker 2>com or at the link in our show notes. This

0:19:09.840 --> 0:19:12.879
<v Speaker 2>episode was produced by Julia Press and David Fox. It

0:19:12.960 --> 0:19:16.880
<v Speaker 2>was edited by Aaron Edwards and Flynn McRoberts. Additional reporting

0:19:16.920 --> 0:19:21.080
<v Speaker 2>by Polly Masson's special thanks to Kayla sha The episode

0:19:21.080 --> 0:19:23.359
<v Speaker 2>was fact checked by Rachel Lewis Kriskey and mixed in

0:19:23.480 --> 0:19:27.360
<v Speaker 2>sound designed by Alex Suguia. Our senior producer is Naomi Shaven.

0:19:27.440 --> 0:19:31.360
<v Speaker 2>Our senior editor is Elizabeth Ponso. Our deputy executive producer

0:19:31.440 --> 0:19:34.960
<v Speaker 2>is Julia Weaver. Our executive producer is Nicole Beamster. Board

0:19:35.400 --> 0:19:38.720
<v Speaker 2>Sage Bauman is Bloomberg's head of podcasts. If you liked

0:19:38.760 --> 0:19:41.600
<v Speaker 2>this episode, make sure to subscribe and review The Big

0:19:41.640 --> 0:19:44.840
<v Speaker 2>Take wherever you listen to podcasts. It helps people find

0:19:44.880 --> 0:19:48.400
<v Speaker 2>the show. Thanks for listening. We'll be back tomorrow.