Biden to Close Massive ICE Detention Center While Illegal Migration Surges
Dismantling immigration enforcement in advance of presidential election
By Andrew R. Arthur on December 1, 2023
Fox News reported this week that the Biden administration is “expected” to close the massive, 1,940-bed ICE detention facility in Adelanto, Calif., even while CBP encounters at the Southwest border reach new heights. It is just the White House’s latest attempt to dismantle immigration enforcement in advance of a 2024 presidential election, with the possibility of a new — and differently minded — administration in the not-so-distant future.
Adelanto ICE Processing Center. Technically, it’s called the “Adelanto ICE Processing Center”, and the facility itself was purchased by the GEO Group from the city of Adelanto in June 2010. GEO entered into a contract with ICE “through an intergovernmental service agreement with the City of Adelanto” in May 2011 — notably in the heart of the Obama-Biden administration.
As GEO explains, “Medical care, food service, laundry, and general living conditions are provided” at the facility “in accordance with standards required ICE. Visitation, commissary, library, and legal services are provided as well.”
AB-32. A privately-owned ICE detention facility in deep-blue California was bound to be the subject of controversy, and that has definitely been true of Adelanto. California Assembly Bill 32 (AB-32), which was passed by the state legislature and signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) in October 2019, would have banned private immigration detention facilities in the state.
Which was clearly — at least in part — the intent of the bill. Want proof? Consider the following text from the state Senate floor analysis of AB-32, issued in September 2019:
https://cis.org/Arthur/Biden-Close-Massive-ICE-Detention-Center-While-Illegal-Migration-Surges
