U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement used the pretense of a national emergency to justify a secret, no-bid contract with CoreCivic that would pay the company $4.2 million per month to house detained immigrants at its vacant Leavenworth prison.
August Rudisell/Lawrence Times
Advocates with two local organizations on Saturday called on Lawrence residents to amplify and uphold the rights of their undocumented immigrant neighbors.
State troopers are on standby in Kansas as demonstrations against federal immigration raids crop up around the country following an increased military presence in response to protests in Los Angeles.
Nathan Kramer / Lawrence Times
In the face of uncertainty surrounding changes in immigration enforcement, two local groups are coming together to host an educational session featuring the most current local and national information on immigration.
Immigrants being held inside a federal prison in Leavenworth and their attorneys reported an unsanitary, inequitable and unhealthy environment that has left people, even those who have won their immigration cases, deprived of basic needs.
A Kansas district court barred CoreCivic Wednesday from reopening its shuttered prison until the company goes through Leavenworth’s development process to receive a special use permit.
Jose Madrid-Leiva applied for a type of visa for crime victims and authorities said he qualified for immigration protections. His detention suggests a new frontier in immigration enforcement.
A U.S. District Court judge ruled in favor of a private prison company that plans to use its troubled Leavenworth facility for immigration detention. The city argued CoreCivic should follow local laws first.
CoreCivic will know by Friday whether it will have to delay plans to begin holding Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees in June at its Leavenworth facility.
The city of Leavenworth and CoreCivic will take their fight to court June 9 to determine whether the company can reopen its prison facility as an ICE detention center without going through a permitting process.
