1. United States
2. N.C.
3. Letter

I am writing to ask you that you publicly denounce the proposed plans to convert three facilities in NC into ICE detention centers. ICE is actively considering reopening facilities notorious for abuse and corruption – and they’re using our taxpayer dollars to fuel this expansion. Congress has allocated more than $45 billion for ICE detention alone. If opened, the facilities would increase ICE’s capacity to detain people who are immigrants, adding to the more than 70,000 immigrants currently in ICE detention. Several people have already died in ICE custody in 2025 and 2026. ICE has given us no reason to believe that these detention centers would be any safer than the abusive facilities it already operates. ICE has made clear that it relies on secrecy. When North Carolinians must fight for basic information about federal enforcement in their own state, the public cannot trust that these decisions are in their best interest. The documents disclosed by ICE also provide information regarding the history of facility use, available transport, proximity to local hospitals, immigration courts, and legal services. The facilities under consideration include: • The Rivers Correctional Facility in Winton, NC, which is owned and operated by the GEO Group, Inc. The GEO Group previously lost federal contracts to detain people at this facility due to findings of violence and sexual assault at the facility. Former officers at the facility were also recently sentenced for contraband and bribery. • The former American Hebrew Academy in Greensboro, NC, run by the Baptiste Group. The facility had previously been slated to serve as a migrant children’s detention facility but was shut down in 2024. • An unidentified facility referred to as the “Greensboro Detention Facility,” run by the Baptiste Group and located in or near Greensboro, NC. “The Trump administration cannot be allowed to continue its weaponization of immigration detention in secret,” said Sophia Gregg, senior immigrants’ rights attorney at the ACLU of Virginia. “As we have seen, abuse and civil rights violations are rampant in these facilities, and the public has a right to know where and how the government intends to expand its use of these deadly facilities." I oppose that taxpayers’ money is used in further hurting immigrants in this country. My Tax money should be used for funding access to healthcare for all, affordable housing, access to good quality mental health and services, and access to local nutritious and pest free food, clean air, and clean water.