The increase of private prisons

The country’s biggest for-profit prison companies like the GEO Group and the Corrections Corporation of America already pull in millions of dollars a year locking up immigrants in federal custody. If immigration reform goes badly, they will make even more.

The House Judiciary Committee has passed the SAFE Act (HR 2278), a toxic measure that, if passed, would turn millions of undocumented immigrants into criminals overnight. No longer a civil violation, not having papers would also become a federal crime punishable by months or years in a U.S. prison. It would also dramatically expand the civil immigration detention system.

Private prison companies could rake in huge profits if this bill becomes law - nearly half of all people in immigration detention are locked in private jails and prisons. This would come at a staggering cost to taxpayers, who would pay private prisons billions of dollars to imprison individuals who are not a public safety risk.

We need to stop Congress from handing a windfall to prison profiteers through this dangerous, profit-hungry legislation.