Oppose the GEO Group Re-Opening a Prison as an ICE Facility in North Carolina

I am writing to urge you to oppose ICE's plan to re-open Rivers Correctional Institution in Winton, North Carolina as a 1,400-bed detention facility under a contract with the GEO Group, and to use your office to keep this facility from becoming operational. According to recent reporting, this facility will become the largest ICE detention center on the East Coast. It seems that because GEO Group couldn't find adequate medical staff to run the facility as a prison, they are now going to open it as an ICE facility. Some claim it will provide jobs and boost a struggling rural economy, but such a facility in rural Hertford County would waste taxpayer resources while inflicting human suffering. If GEO Group couldn't find enough medical personnel on a Bureau of Prisons contract, who is going to ensure they does so on an ICE contract? Prisons across North Carolina have struggled to find employees; how is Rivers going to fare if it reopened? The detainees ICE is incarcerating are not dangerous criminals. As of July 2026, 71 percent of ICE detainees have no criminal convictions whatsoever. Only 5 percent have been convicted of violent crimes. Instead, the majority are workers, families, and children detained for civil immigration violations. Many detained are low-income women separated from their children, pregnant women denied proper medical care, and people whose only offense is crossing the border without documentation. This will cost North Carolina and federal taxpayers enormously. Detaining each person costs approximately $152 per day, or roughly $55,000 per person annually. The current federal investment in immigration detention exceeds $14 billion per year—funding that could address actual public safety threats or support community needs in economically struggling areas like Hertford County. GEO Group facilities have a documented record of inhumane conditions and resistance to oversight. California investigators found deficiencies in suicide prevention, gaps in medical care, and inappropriate use of solitary confinement at GEO facilities. New Jersey had to sue GEO for refusing health inspections at Delaney Hall, where detainees reported spoiled food, inadequate hygiene, and denied medical care. Deaths from medical neglect have been documented at GEO-run detention centers. This troubling pattern of resistance to accountability makes transparency essential. Unless ICE and GEO Group commit to welcoming unannouncedinspections by state, county, and federal officials/representatives, as well as independent advocacy groups and human rights observers, no expansion of immigration detention facilities in North Carolina should be permitted. As your constituent, I ask you to oppose this facility and to uphold North Carolina's commitment to human rights, fiscal responsibility, and genuine public safety—values that are fundamentally incompatible with detaining non-criminals in facilities with a documented record of neglect and abuse.