On Tues. May 22, 2018, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors will be meeting. A group of persons working with The Step Up Coalition, the Sacramento Immigration Coalition, ACT, and more will try to introduce a resolution to oppose Sacramento County from extending the current contract for the Sacramento jail to be used as a holding facility of ICE.
If they cannot get a supervisor to introduce the legislation, it will be introduced during the public comment time.
The current contract expires June 15, 2018. The Sheriffs Dept. receives over $1,000,000 per year for this service. There are substantial testimonies of abuse and neglect at the facility.
Meanwhile, the Sheriff is up for re-election, Or Not.
ICE, Jails to be full,
CRISIS IN THE MAKING?: The Trump administration's decision to refer all suspected border crossers for federal prosecution could play out in a couple ways. The "zero tolerance" message may trickle down to would-be asylum seekers from Central America and quell the recent uptick in border arrests, with most traveling to ports of entry or bypassing the United States altogether. To that end, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen told lawmakers at a Senate Appropriations subcommittee Tuesday that the department is trying to spread the word in Central America through youth outreach, radio promotions, and U.S. embassies.
Here's another scenario: Asylum-seekers don't get the message, or don't consider it a good enough reason to endure conditions in their home countries. If that's the case, then the number of families and unaccompanied minors arrested at the border may continue to rise. Under this scenario, the new prosecution strategy would likely increase the number of kids who became "unaccompanied" when their parents got hit with federal illegal entry charges. That would make the number of beds available for unaccompanied minors an issue. A DHS official who declined to be identified told Morning Shift this week that at the current rate, the Health and Human Services Department will reach capacity within two weeks. The administration has some flexibility: A facility in Homestead, Fla., is contracted for 500 beds, but maintains the capacity for 1,300, according to a spokesperson from the Administration for Children and Families. (At the moment, it houses 425 unaccompanied children.) But that surplus will fill up quickly, too, if present trends continue.
The DHS official sees the new zero-tolerance policy in political terms. "What they are doing with this new family separation policy is precipitating a crisis," the official said. "[They're] using women and children to create chaos for deterrence or possibly to jam through a legislative package. But recent history says neither will work."
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