this letter was signed by forty immigrants held at pine prairie ice processing center
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The author of this letter is an african man who asked for asylum in tijuana. he has not committed any crime, but as part of the us immigration system he was put in prison to wait for a judge to decide if he gets asylum. it was 10 months before he could present his case to a judge. the judge then ordered him deported. he has to wait in prison until they send him back to the country he fled, where he will likely be killed. in the meantime the private prison operator collects us government money for keeping immigrants like him at pine prairie. this is your money at work.
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Pine Prairie is operated by the GEO Group
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GEO Group is the second-largest for-profit prison operator in the United States, behind Corrections Corporation of America, with total revenue of $1.69 billion and net profit of $143.84 million in 2014.
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GEO Group profits from federal and state policies. The GEO Group outwardly supports the dramatic rise in incarceration and detention in the United States--an increase of more than 500 percent over the past thirty years.
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As of 2011, around half of all prisoners in state facilities were there for nonviolent crimes, and half of inmates in federal prisons were serving time for drug offenses.
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GEO Group has explicitly identified drug decriminalization and sentencing leniency as factors that could have adverse effects on its business.
