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.

JCUA Speaks Out for Continued County Ban on “Detainers”

The Cook County Board recently made history by adopting an ordinance that keeps taxpayers from picking up the tab for federal immigration enforcement. Now, however, the board’s action is under attack.

Though it’s already officially law, the ordinance was discussed at a public hearing this morning, attended by numerous supporters of the existing language.

JCUA believes the existing county ordinance is a good policy that protects public safety and reserves limited law enforcement resources.

For years, the federal government has issued “detainers” that instruct local police to hold individuals after their authority has expired and until immigration agents can take custody, costing Cook County residents millions of dollars each year. The county board found that the vast majority of individuals held on detainers had only minor criminal charges, and that the federal detainer policy dissuaded immigrant victims and witnesses from stepping forward to report crimes.

Jane Ramsey, president of JCUA, delivered the following testimony at today’s hearing:

“We applaud the County’s wise decision to not act upon ICE detainer requests. These requests have deleterious effects upon families and communities, separating children from parents, and spouses from one another. In addition to the emotional loss and loss of parental support and guidance, the economic impact is devastating as families lose their source of income.

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.