The GEO Group, a privately owned prison organization, will expand Georgia’s Folkston U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Detention center by 1,800 beds. This plan would make Folkston the largest ICE Detention Center in the U.S. Despite promises from U.S. President Joe Biden to repair our broken immigration system and dissolve for-profit detention centers, nothing has been done. Folkston’s expansion should be a wake up call for the Biden administration; action needs to be taken now.

Privately owned ICE facilities fail to meet necessary levels of safety and security for detainees. The Georgia Department of Corrections has ongoing contracts with two for-profit companies; GEO and CoreCivic. In 2020, these two companies made 28% of their annual revenue from their ICE government contracts. The leaders of these institutions have prioritized money making; stabilizing and increasing their cash flow gives them a greater incentive to cut costs, overcrowd centers, and reduce the quality of life for those in their care.

The COVID-19 pandemic serves as a reminder of the consequences of budget cuts that take place in ICE facilities. Many detention centers are extremely overcrowded. The key to stopping the spread of Covid is isolation, but that simply isn’t an option for detainees. According to the ACLU, COVID-19 infection rates are 20 times higher than they are in the American public. At the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, GA, COVID numbers passed 1,000 during Sept. 2021. As of Jan. 13, numbers remain high at 1,158 confirmed cases. Four detainees have died from COVID, making Stewart responsible for almost a third of COVID related deaths in ICE’s custody nationwide.

In addition to COVID-19 concerns, medical neglect and abuse continue to be a major problem for detainees. At Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, GA, dozens of female immigrants came forward in 2020, accusing gynecologist Mahendra Amin of unnecessary and invasive gynecological procedures. According to their allegations, Amin would often exaggerate the seriousness of the women’s problems and take extreme measures rather than the correct procedures. He performed hysterectomies (a surgical procedure to remove the uterus) and various other surgeries without the consent of his patients. Female detainees were often referred to Amin without a translator, so they could not understand the severity of the surgery. LaSalle Corporations, a private company that owns Irwin, referred over 1,000 immigrants from Irwin to outside medical facilities in 2020. The facility remains open, despite the Biden administration’s pledges from last year to close it.

While former President Donald Trump was in office, 40 new detention centers were built in the United States, 91% of which were used by companies like GEO and CoreCivic. Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration and development of harsh border control turned the United States from a so called immigrant friendly nation to a dangerous one. Trump passed down a broken system to the Biden administration, yet little has been done to repair it.

Last year, President Biden filed an executive order that included directions for the Department of Justice to begin cutting ties with private prison companies. Locations included criminal detention facilities, Bureau of Prison sites, and U.S. Marshal service sites across the country. None of the protocols included in the order could be applied to ICE detention centers. Biden’s executive order was an opportunity for him to begin reversing Trump’s old policies, but he chose not to take it. Rather than spending millions on private contracts, the administration needs to focus on funding public ICE facilities with higher levels of security, reducing detention rates (which would drastically decrease the amount of detainees in detention centers), and reducing sentence times. Many immigrants are detained for longer than necessary. Trump’s iron fisted grip on our country’s immigration policies has loosened, but the US government needs to make these urgent changes to keep immigrants safe.

This story was originally published on The Southerner on February 3, 2022.