VivirLatino

Detention centers by any other name

11:39 H | Topics: Immigration - Politics

And a familiar name to those sensitive to topics such as "reconstruction" in Iraq and botched hurricane relief, among other things. I mean if you are going to be detained in a modern-day Angel Island, it might as well be a name you know and distrust: Halliburton The guys who brought us "Camp Delta" at Guantanamo.

The Army Corps of Engineers has awarded a contract worth up to $385 million for building temporary immigration detention centers to Kellogg Brown & Root, the Halliburton subsidiary that has been criticized for overcharging the Pentagon for its work in Iraq.

The Army Core of Engineers claim that the centers will be used to house people in instances of "massive immigration" only:

"When there's a large influx of people into the United States, how are we going to feed, house and protect them?" Mr. Church asked. "That's why these kinds of contracts are there."

Yeah. There's already that large influx -- and "protected" from what?

Is this an indication of more severe anti-immigrant measures on the part of the federal government? I'm not the only one who's asking that question:

"It's pretty obvious that the intent of the government is to detain more and more people and to expedite their removal," said Cheryl Little, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center in Miami.

"Emergency relief" or a stateside "Guantanamo Express"?

Via / The New York Times and BoingBoing

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