During his first week in office, President Biden promised to abolish private federal prisons, but his administration specifically targeted criminal detention. This allowed private immigration detention facilities to continue to expand, earning over $1 billion per year from contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”).

Approximately 90 percent of the over 36,000 detained immigrants reside in privately-run facilities, facilities where human rights violations run rampant, according to reports by the ACLU and other organizations Of the 110 immigration detention centers nationwide, the largest, privately-owned centers earn approximately $25 million per year.

In the wake of the Biden Administration’s targeting of privately-run criminal prison facilities, private immigration detention has more than doubled in the last 4 years. Private companies that previously ran criminal prisons often entered contracts with ICE instead, making the former prisons into immigration detention facilities.

The Moshannon Processing and Detention Center in Clearfield, Pennsylvania, is one of these criminal prison facilities that switched to detaining immigrants - nearly 2,000 at capacity. The ACLU-PA recently filed a lawsuit against the Moshannon facility, raising concerns of sexual, emotional, and physical abuse, lack of legal access, insufficient health care, and unsanitary conditions.

Moreover, detainees claim the facility staff treats them like criminals, rather than civilly detained non-citizens. For example, one detainee reported being put into solitary confinement for two months because of a simple, verbal argument with another detainee.

ICE typically detains non-citizens who are a danger to society and/or a flight risk as they await their immigration removal proceedings with the Executive Office of Immigration Review (“EOIR”) under the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”). While EOIR strives to expedite immigration proceedings for detained non-citizens, some detainees report remaining in detention for months and years. Some decide to wait until their hearing, while the detention conditions motivate others to voluntarily depart the United States.

On May 14, 2024, U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Alex Padilla (D-CA) wrote to Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas of DHS and Patrick Lechleitner of ICE, highlighting these concerns and urging the agencies to rescind existing contracts, refrain from extending expiring contracts, and utilize alternatives such as GPS monitoring, release on self-recognizance, and community-based supervision, among others.