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NIJC has a new Chicago address at 111 W. Jackson Blvd, Suite 800, Chicago, IL 60604 and a new email domain at @immigrantjustice.org.

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Contact NIJC Communications Director Tara Tidwell Cullen at (312) 833-2967 or by email.

NIJC Calls on Zoning Board to Reject Private Prison Company’s Petitions to Build Massive New Jail in Northwest Indiana
 
Statement of Mary Meg McCarthy, Executive Director, Heartland Alliance’s National Immigrant Justice Center
 
Heartland Alliance’s National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) applauds Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson of Gary, Indiana, who last night withdrew her support for the construction of an 800-bed immigration detention facility by private, for-profit prison company GEO Group. Her decision was in response to strong opposition by community groups including the Northwest Indiana Federation of Interfaith Organizations, Black Lives Matter, and the Mass Incarceration + GEO Halt Team (MIGHT), who last year defeated a similar proposal in the nearby city of Hobart.
 
NIJC is grateful for these groups’ powerful work to protect families and defend the rights of immigrants and other communities of color who have been disproportionately targeted by the private prison industry and the U.S. justice system’s harmful overreliance on incarceration. We are mindful that this fight is not over until GEO drops its proposal and that GEO will continue to seek new locations to build prisons. We hope that local leaders will follow the moral leadership of Mayor Freeman-Wilson and others who have rejected private prisons, recognizing that our communities are strongest when we invest in systems that uphold human rights rather than profit off of oppression and the destruction of families.
 
NIJC, which provides legal services to hundreds of immigrants in Northwest Indiana, is proud to have been among the chorus of voices at the November 10 zoning board meeting demanding that the City of Gary reject the proposed prison. NIJC calls on the zoning board to reject petitions by the GEO Group, a company with a troubling record of mistreatment of the people in its custody and its workers. With Gary residents' and the mayor's opposition now apparent, the board must bring a formal conclusion to the GEO Group’s efforts to profit from the separation of families and incarceration of refugees, asylum-seekers, and other immigrants.