Make the Vision Possible, Says JCUA’s CEO

Judy Levey, JCUA’s chief executive officer, was a featured speaker at our recent “Acts of Change” event (June 20, 2012). She identifies JCUA’s main issue areas as immigration, housing, Jewish-Muslim community building and empowerment of Jewish teens. The event honored immigration attorney Kalman Resnick and Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia with the Rabbi Robert J. Marx Social Justice Award.

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Judy Levey, JCUA CEO

It is an honor to be here, following the great tradition of Rabbi Marx, Jane Ramsey, and others have led this organization. Our honorees, Kalman and Chuy are role models for social justice. They, together with our community partners, and all of you – are Actors of Change.

I would like to illustrate several of the ways JCUA, with your help, makes our world more just. These examples make clear what a group of committed and focused people can accomplish when we work together.

Proposed Crete Detention Center

Let’s begin with the dramatic recent events taking place in the Village of Crete. The Corrections Corporation of America was hoping to construct a private immigration detention center there. But the CCA has a bad track record, and their profit incentives lead them to skimp on food and health care. Private detention centers in general are notorious for violations of basic human rights.

JCUA has been working in Crete since late last year, joining forces with the Interfaith Committee for Detained Immigrants, of which we are a founding member. With our help, the residents of Crete got organized and fought to make their voices heard.

There were some setbacks, but a couple of weeks ago the Village Board of Crete voted to kill the project.

Did it happen overnight? No, it was the result of the sustained efforts of the residents of Crete, JCUA, and allies, working together, building relationships, and persevering even in the face of what looked like defeat.

The Power of the People: Private Detention Center Turned Down by Crete, Ill. Officials

Representing JCUA, Alyse Sheilds (center, carrying sign), marches with Crete residents in opposition to construction of a federal detention center.

Organizers often say that there are two kinds of power: money power and people power. If you don’t have one, you better get the other. The story of the attempt to build a private detention center in Crete, Ill. is a classic case of the struggle between the two, namely, the power of money against the power of the people.

Yesterday (June 11) the people won.

A private detention center, lobbied for by the abundantly wealthy Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), will not be built in Crete. How did this happen?

In spring of 2011, through JCUA’s central role in the Illinois Committee on Detained Immigrants, Emily Zucker Burns (JCUA’s director of organizing) learned that there are plans to build Illinois’s first private detention center in Crete. At the time there was no organized effort to oppose this move, the opposition was scattered, and many facts were unknown and concealed.

In response, and in partnership with our community allies, JCUA decided to invest significant staff time in researching the issue, and, most importantly, spending time in Crete – talking to residents and empowering their leadership, reaching out to elected officials, and building bridges between Crete residents and immigrant communities that would potentially be most affected if the prison were built. This groundwork is tedious; it does not present immediate reward. Initially there were no victories to tout, only numerous meetings, phone calls, and time spent listening and planning.

Marchers Trek from Chicago to Crete in Opposition to Detention Center

By Alyse Shields
JCUA Intern, School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago

As we walked down the roads through the south suburban Crete last Sunday I was reminded of a movement that began in a similar fashion, just over 50 years ago.

Representing JCUA, Alyse Sheilds (center, carrying sign), marches with Crete residents in opposition to construction of a federal detention center.

The village of Crete does not see many demonstrations like this, and not everyone we came across that chilly afternoon welcomed our presence. However, when the Civil Rights Movement began in 1964, not all of those marchers were welcomed onto the streets of various towns across our nation either. Laws and policies that had been considered “natural” were being challenged. Like those that came together that Sunday, groups marched peaceably with one another not just to show solidarity, but also to challenge inhumane treatment of people in this nation.

Responding to requests from local leaders, the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs has been working since last fall to help them organize in opposition to construction of a federal immigrant detention center in Crete. This 750-bed facility would be built by Corrections Corporation of America.

On Sunday, April 1, those Crete residents welcomed a Chicago-based organization that undertook a three-day walk from Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood more than 30 miles to Crete.

Angry Crete Residents Say: Education Not Incarceration

Residents of Crete attend a February meeting to protest a proposed immigrant detention center.

By Alyse Shields
JCUA Intern, School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago

Echoes of “CCA go away” and “Education not Incarceration” were heard throughout the night as the organizers of the event spoke in depth about the impact of a private prison on property values, the identity of Crete, and the questionable history of CCA’s treatment of its detainees and employees.

Alyse Shields

It was Tuesday, February 28, and residents of Crete (a village south of Chicago) were meeting once again to discuss the impact of the proposed immigrant detention center on the small community in the south suburbs of Chicago, where Correction Corporation of America, Immigration Customs and Enforcement, and Crete officials still plan on constructing the center.

The crowd that gathered filled the gym at Crete Elementary, a space large enough to fit 300 people.  Those who attended listened intently and towards the end of the night many shared their own disbelief at the nature of such a project being brought to Crete, while others asked questions that only Crete officials have the inside knowledge to answer.

The Chicago Tribune has reported that plans for the center are moving ahead.

Clearly Crete officials and their large business partners are not as concerned with the voices of the residents of Crete. However, it is also clear that this crowd of determined citizens is not going anywhere, and that this meeting is not the last attempt to have their voices heard by those who are their elected leaders and representatives.

Crete Detention Center Update: Local Residents Remain Strong in their Opposition

By Emily Zucker Burns
JCUA Director of Organizing 

There’s a lot of activity to report about the proposal to build a large immigrant detention center in the village of Crete, about a one-hour drive south of  Chicago’s Loop.

On Monday, Jan. 23 more than 100 Crete residents  attended the village board meeting to get answers from the mayor and village trustees on the status of the proposed immigration detention center and to voice their opposition.

• Kadner: A display of democracy on detention camp plan

News later emerged that a portion of the proposed site for the detention center is located in a TIF district, which further challenges the claims that the facility will generate tax revenue that will benefit the town:

• TIF district could cut boost from Crete detention center

Congressmen Jesse Jackson, Jr. and Luis Gutierrez met last with with ICE officials in Washington to express their opposition for the construction of the detention center. As a result ICE has committed to holding a hearing on the issue after the Primary Elections:

• Federal officials to hold hearings in Crete on proposed immigration detention center

Residents of Crete and the surrounding communities remain strong in their efforts to oppose the detention center. The group will be holding a second public meeting prior to the Primary Elections.

Crete Detention Center: Many Questions, Few Answers

Alyse Shields

By Alyse Shields
JCUA Intern, School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago

Emotions remain high in the south suburban village of Crete, the site of a proposed federal detention center.

Another 100 people attended at the latest Crete Village Board meeting held Jan. 23. The small room overflowed with residents, most standing against every available wall, eager to have their questions answered.

I attended the meeting as a representative of JCUA and the Interfaith Committee for Detained Immigrants.

Village Administrator Thomas Durkin opened the meeting by offering responses to questions that residents have been asking about the project. His mundane and perfunctory answers added little insight. Meanwhile, as Durkin spoke, a crowd of impassioned citizens outside the chamber chanted “No Crete Detention Center!”

Crete Residents Protest Proposed Detention Center

Events have been heating up in Crete, Ill., a south suburb of Chicago, where local Crete officials, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, and the private prison company Corrections Corporation of America, have been making plans to build a 750-bed immigrant detention center.

(Top photo: Attendees at the Crete Village Board meeting. Bottom photo: A protest sign appears at a site in Crete rumored to be the location of the proposed detention center.)

At an impassioned meeting held this past Monday night at the Crete Township hall, organized by concerned residents of Crete and the surrounding communities, and the Interfaith Committee for Detained Immigrants, a coalition in which JCUA is an active member, nearly 160 local residents listened intently to comments about the impact this private prison would have on their town and on undocumented immigrants.