New First-in-the-Nation California Bill Targets Corporations Profiting from ICE-Funded Immigration Detention Centers

Assemblymember Haney's AB 1633 would curb corporate profiteering from ICE-funded immigration detention centers in California-facilities long criticized for unsafe and inhumane conditions-by imposing a 50% tax on corporate profits from detention operations

• Annie Keys
• [email protected]

SACRAMENTO, CA - Assemblymember Matt Haney (D-San Francisco) has introduced AB 1633, first-in-the-nation legislation to hold for-profit corporations accountable for operating ICE-funded private immigration detention facilities in California by taxing their massive profits and reinvesting the revenue into a new fund that would provide immigration-related services.

"For years, ICE has fueled a system that profits from human suffering and family separation, outsourcing detention to private corporations who rake in profits while people endure dangerous, inhumane conditions," said Assemblymember Haney. "What we're seeing in Minnesota and across the country shows the real world consequences of ICE's unchecked power, putting communities and lives at risk for profit with zero accountability. Corporations running these facilities are being paid hundreds of millions to detain people in cruelty right here in California, and it has to end."

California is home to seven ICE-funded private immigration detention facilities operated by for-profit corporations with a documented history of unsafe and inhumane conditions, including substandard medical care and repeated health and safety violations. Recent inspections by the California Department of Justice confirmed these concerns. After inspecting a newly opened, privately run ICE detention facility in Kern County - the largest in the state - the Department of Justice reported "dangerous living conditions" and a "lack of adequate medical care," including too few doctors, insufficient hygiene products, and inadequate access to food and water. An individual who was detained in a privately run, for-profit ICE detention facility recounted their experience of being captured and held in the facility, deprived of their basic rights.

"When the ICE officers handcuffed my hands and feet, I was shocked and nervous at how they treated me though I followed all legal processes for my adjustment of my status," said a client of Services, Immigrant Rights & Education Network (SIREN). "Upon arrival to California City, I was stripped of my humanity from my personal belongings of my clothes and shoes to my freedom. Even though I asked the medical team every day, I never received crucial medication I needed to clear my eyes, which made crying even more painful. Detention centers are rotten places that suffocate you with loneliness and separate you from your loved ones. No one deserves to experience the same pain and loneliness that I felt every day in that prison."

Despite these findings, private detention corporations continue to receive lucrative ICE contracts funded by federal tax dollars. For-profit detention companies like GEO Group receive more than $142 million to operate ICE detention facilities in Adelanto and Desert View, and over $105 million for the Golden State Annex and Mesa Verde centers. CoreCivic is paid roughly $130 million to operate the ICE-funded California City facility and more than $138 million for its Otay Mesa center.

"These companies are getting rich while separating families and causing actual harm to our communities," Haney said. "That has a real cost, and Californians are stuck paying the price. This is not an abstract policy problem, it's a human crisis."

Advocates echoed the urgency of ending corporate profit windfalls from ICE-funded private immigration detention.

"Private detention facilities not only deprive people of their liberty and break families apart, they have a track record of abusive, unsafe, and sometimes deadly conditions," said Shiu-Ming Cheer, Deputy Director, California Immigrant Policy Center. "This bill is a step toward protecting the health and safety of everyone in California and holding for-profit corporations accountable for profiting off Californians in custody."

AB 1633 will impose a 50 percent tax on a private detention operator's gross receipts from ICE and other federal contracts to operate detention facilities in California and require those funds to be reinvested into immigration-related services, reducing incentives for corporate profiteering while helping the state respond to the harm caused by mass immigration detention.

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