User:Jaboiti3/sandbox

The criminalization of immigrants in the Unites States stemmed from the 19th century plenary power doctrine which was created in response to the Chinese exclusion. This illustrates that in order for immigrants to stay in the United States they must have proper documentation that is approved by the US congress and if they did not have these documents they would get deported. In 1965, the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) provided a limit for immigrants entering the United States from both Eastern and Western Hemisphere countries. The INA states that 170, 000 immigrants are allowed from the Eastern Hemisphere per year with an even lesser rate of 120,000 immigrants per year from the Western Hemisphere. However, according to sociology professor Karen Manges Douglas and Rogelio Sáenz, these stricter policies caused the entry of undocumented immigrants. Although acts like the Immigration Act of 1986, were introduced to take control over undocumented immigration, the effects were minimal. In 1996, president Clinton approved of new acts that gave the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) the “power to arrest, detain and deport unauthorized immigrants”.

The INS first set up their own two big reconciliation camps in South Florida due to a “huge influx of immigrants” from the Mariel exodus during the 1980s. Majority of the inmates in these camps were comprised of Mariel Cubans where the INS created a campaign in hopes to stigmatize these Cubans. In support of this campaign, the congress provided the INS with a large amount of money, where by 1988 they had a budget of $2.2 billion. Today, the federal government pays for INS detainees who are in facilities outside of the federal system. Due to this INS detainees are wanted by many prisons as they “generate considerable revenue” where in the New Orleans Parish Prison the INS pays the prison $45 each day for each of the INS immigrant detainees.

Funding of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) is increasing as about a total of $4.27 billion was allotted to the INS in the 2000 fiscal budget. This is 8% more than in the 1999 fiscal budget. This expansion, experts claim, has been too rapid and thus has led to an increased chance on the part of faculty for negligence and abuse. Lucas Guttengag, director of the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project stated that, "immigrants awaiting administrative hearings are being detained in conditions that would be unacceptable at prisons for criminal offenders." Such examples include "travelers without visas" (TWOVs) being held in motels near airports nicknamed "Motel Kafkas" that are under the jurisdiction of private security officers who have no affiliation to the government, often denying them telephones or fresh air, and there are some cases where detainees have been shackled and sexually abused according to Guttengag. Similar conditions arose in the ESMOR detention center at Elizabeth, New Jersey where complaints arose in less than a year, despite having a "state-of-the-art" facility.

The number of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. is over 12 million in total. Those that argue against the PIC claim that effective immigration policy has failed to pass since private detention centers profit from keeping undocumented immigrants detained. They also claim that despite having the incarceration rate grow "10 times what it was prior to 1970", "it has not made this country any safer." Since the September 11 attacks in 2001, the budget for Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), have nearly doubled from 2003 to 2008, with CBP's budget increasing from $5.8 billion to $10.1 billion and ICE from $3.2 billion to $5 billion and even so there has been no significant decrease in immigrant population. Professor Wayne Cornelius even argued that it is so ineffective that "(92-97%)" of immigrants who attempt to cross in illegally "keep trying until they succeed," and that such measures actually increase the risk and cost of travel, leading to longer stays and settlement in the US.

There are around 400,000 immigrant detainees per year, and 50% are housed in privatized facilities. The two leading private prison companies are the Corrections Corporation of America (CAA) and the Geo Group. Both these companies “claim to provide cost-effective and quality services to their clients, while saving their taxpayer dollars” (254). In 2011, CCA’s net worth was $1.4 billion and net income was $162 million. In this same year, The GEO Group had a net worth of $1.2 billion and net income of $78 million. As of 2012, CCA has over 75,000 inmates within 60 facilities and the GEO Group owns over 114 facilities. Over half of the prison industry's yearly revenue comes from immigrant detention centers. For some small communities in the Southwestern United States, these facilities serve as an integral part of the economy. According to Chris Kirkham, this constitutes part of a growing immigration industrial complex: "Companies dependent upon continued growth in the numbers of undocumented immigrants detained have exerted themselves in the nation's capital and in small, rural communities to create incentives that reinforce that growth." A study by the ACLU says that many are housed in inhumane conditions as many facilities operated by private companies are exempt from government oversight, and studies are made difficult as such facilities may not be covered by a Freedom of Information Act.