Letter to the editor from Stephanie Winters
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Editor:
As a Wyoming resident, I am saddened and appalled to have heard and read about the proposed immigrant detention center in Uinta County. The detention center is bad for Wyoming and is reminiscent of the WWII Heart Mountain internment camp, near Cody.
Americans, and especially citizens of Wyoming, feel that internment camps for Japanese and Japanese-Americans are a stain on history. Many citizens denounced them as their neighbors were shipped off to these camps. Let us not, as a state, repeat past civil liberty crushing mistakes.
Our Wyoming communities are better because of immigrants and as a whole we thrive. Families are here because they want to raise their children in decent towns with a good education system, contribute to the local economy, and become part of the community.
The for-profit private immigration prison will be owned and operated by Management and Training Corporation (MTC), a company known for abuse and neglect. Prior to the current administration, the Department of Homeland Security was going to end the use of privately-run prisons due to poor conditions and instances of abuse and neglect.
An MTC immigrant prison in Raymondville, Texas, has had reports of sexual abuse, vermin infestations, and unsanitary conditions. After these problems, U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ended its contract with MTC, according to a June 2017 report by PRI Global Post. There are several lawsuits against MTC brought on by the Willacy County local government in Texas and American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Southern Poverty Law Center in Mississippi.
The people who are to be imprisoned in this potential Evanston for-profit private prison are members of our society, co-workers and humans with families. These are real people we know.
Why would Wyoming, jeopardize its citizens’ safety while putting itself financially and morally at risk for the sake of a private prison?
Stephanie Winters
Laramie