Billionaire's PR Retreat Hides ICE's True Architects
📰 THE STORY: Bloomberg reports that Canadian billionaire Jimmy Pattison's company reneged on a deal to sell a Virginia warehouse to the Department of Homeland Security, which intended to convert it into an ICE detention facility. This marks the third time a property owner has pulled out of such a deal due to activist protests. 🔍 WHAT THEY'RE NOT TELLING YOU: Historical Context: While media
focuses on individual billionaires, the expansion of private immigration detention centers dates back to the 1980s. The 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA), along with the 287(g) program (established in 1996), dramatically fueled the growth of this for-profit industry by mandating increased detention and deputizing local law enforcement for immigration
arrests. By 2020, private prison corporations like Geo Group and CoreCivic housed nearly 70% of all ICE detainees, generating billions in revenue while documented abuses and neglect soared. Double Standard: The media often frames cancellations like Pattison's as a victory against an isolated 'bad actor.' Yet, there's rarely the same scrutiny or outrage applied to the billions in taxpayer dollars
continually funneled to these private prison corporations annually. The plight of migrants at the US border is described in sanitizing terms like 'border crisis,' while the humanitarian disaster driven by policies that benefit these corporations is rarely highlighted. Meanwhile, when the US complains about 'human rights' in countries like Venezuela, it conveniently ignores the systemic abuse