ICE not welcome here

A sweep though Marshall County in the industrial north seeking a site to detain those arrested by agents with Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE), was opposed, according to a number of citizens appearing at the February 17 meeting of the board of supervisors.

Larry Rubin presented a white paper giving reasons why ICE should not be allowed to warehouse detainees in Marshall County.

“I’m very grateful to Dr. Scott,” Rubin said. “We’ve been talking about ICE all day. They were considering buying a warehouse and using it as a detention facility.”

He said Mississippi U.S. Senator Roger Wicker joined in sounding the alarm at the harm an ICE detention facility would cause Mississippi.

“There is a belief the Marshall County Board of Supervisors have no say in it,” Wicker said. “But the supreme court decision says you do have some authority.”

In the handout, a number of print media reports were attached concerning how ICE facilities have been fought against on local levels.

“ICE tried to keep its plans hidden from the public, but Byhalia, being Byhalia and Marshall County being Marshall County, that did not work,” Rubin said. “When the truth came out, residents of Byhalia and Marshall County became alarmed at the harm the facility could do to their current way of life and to Marshall County’s so far successful efforts to attract more families to live here and more employers to create jobs here.”

Locally, action groups reached out to Wicker and others regarding the dangers posed by an ICE detention center in Marshall County. Rubin said Wicker wrote to the Department of Homeland Security, which then announced it would look elsewhere for a detention site.

Rubin said Marshall County residents objected to ICE’s plan because it would have taken the site off the tax rolls, produced few if any jobs, and would have diverted public resources away from residents.

Moreover, it would caused deep anxiety for the areas’ growing and vibrant Hispanic community, and when done, leave behind an empty and dangerous building, Rubin said.

Rubin asked the board of supervisors individually or collectively, to join those in Marshall County who object to the facility.

Rubin said ICE ignored the board of supervisors in looking for a facility in the Chickasaw Trail Industrial Park, leaving the impression that local officials can’t lawfully do anything about decisions regarding ICE detention facilities.

More specifically, Rubin said nearly 90 percent of people in ICE custody are held in facilities managed by for-profit contractors who cut corners. He gave as an example, GEO Group, which he said is a $4 billion company that allegedly pays detainees about a dollar a day for cleaning.

Rubin said employee turnover rates in detention centers operated by CoreCivic in Tennessee is 146 percent.

Such a facility would divert Marshall County’s limited resources of water, sewer, policing, fire protection and medical services to upkeep and maintenance of the prison facility, Rubin said.

The documents Rubin provided had attached newspaper articles that detailed how local governments have won some court battles against the locations of ICE detention facilities in their communities.