ACLU RELEASES REPORT: PRISONERS OF PROFIT: IMMIGRANTS AND DETENTION IN GEORGIA

The ACLU of Georgia just released a report called "Prisoners of Profit: Immigrants and Detention in Georgia". The report covers the four immigration detention facilities in Georgia, which include the largest immigration detention center in the country, the Stewart Detention Center, as well as the North Georgia Detention Center, Irwin County Detention Center, and Atlanta City Detention Center. Three of the facilities are operated by corporations.
 This report documents serious abuses in Georgia detention centers that violate detainees’ constitutional and human rights as well as ICE standards. Findings raise serious concerns about violations of detainees’ due process rights, inadequate living conditions, inadequate medical and mental health care, and abuse of power by those in charge. Most of the abuses are done by for-profit corporations that manage the Stewart and Irwin County Detention Centers.
 The report recommends that ICE stop detaining immigrants at the for-profit Stewart and Irwin County Detention Centers given the extent of the documented violations as well as the facilities’ remote locations which isolate detainees from their families and communities of support.
 The report also contains recommendations for improving conditions of detention for immigrants at the Atlanta City Detention Center, including providing outdoor recreation to detainees, and at the North Georgia Detention Center, including paying minimum wage to detainees who choose to enroll in the voluntary work program.
Many of these detainees are non-criminals and are only detained for minor immigration violations that are civil in nature. They are being held in isolation from their families and communities and treated like hardened criminals where they should be released on their own recognizance or through monitoring services like the ankle bracelets. It is not a surprise the the for-profit prisons are where the majority of problems occur. The for-profit prisons and their lobbyists in Washington, D.C., are making huge profits off the suffering of others in detention and they are not likely to let their stronghold go away.
 The report can be viewed here: http://www.acluga.org/Prisoners_of_Profit.pdf.
An updated fact sheet on immigration detention titled “Securely Insecure: The Real Costs, Consequences and Human Face of Immigration Detention” can be viewed here: http://www.acluga.org/ImmigrationDetentionFactSheet.pdf.  

GEORGIA UNDOCUMENTED WORKERS PAY MORE THAN $85 MILLION IN INCOME TAXES

Tax day has come and gone and unlike the anti immigration people are thinking, undocumented workers pay a lot in taxes. According to the Immigration Policy Center report, in 2010, undocumented workers in Georgia paid more than $85,000,000 in income taxes. Undocumented workers who do not have social security numbers can still file a tax return, using a tax I.D. number, and some people use made-up social security numbers. This number is significantly higher than what the anti-immigration people are saying (their main excuse is that undocumented immigrants do not pay taxes). They also say that undocumented people are filing taxes so that can get refunds. Well, maybe they do not understand how refunds work. A refund is money that someone overpaid the government because of mandatory employer withholdings. Why should anyone pay above what they owe?