Crete Officials Vote Down Immigration Detention Center
By aaroncynic in News on Jun 13, 2012 7:00PM
Leaders in south suburban Crete, Ill., voted down a proposal to build a detention center for undocumented immigrants. The town of just over 9,000 people was selected by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to build a facility which would house up to 700 undocumented immigrants detained by ICE, reports Fox News Latino. The Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), a for-profit prison corporation contracted by ICE proposed the project to the municipality and wanted to partner with them on it.
A six-member panel and Village President Michael S. Einhorn rejected the plan. According to the Chicago Tribune Einhorn said the issue ultimately came down to money, and that the proposal “didn’t meet the board’s expectations.” Activists and local townspeople though, credited the spotlight shone on the town by the national immigration debate. The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, who organized a march from Chicago to Crete in protest, said in a statement, “These voices have spoken loudly and clearly that we do not want a new immigration detention center in Crete, that breaking up immigrant families is wrong, and that companies like CCA that profit from detaining people are not welcome in our communities.”
Donna Callaway, a Crete resident, told the Tribune “I’m not a college hippie. I’ve seen life. But we could treat people with a lot more respect and a lot less cost for taxpayers than we do now.”