COVID-19 IMPACTS ON IMMIGRATION DETENTION: GLOBAL RESPONSES We should not be surprised. U.S.-headquartered multinational private prisons companies have been exporting their failed practices for decades. The world’s first private prison company CoreCivic/ CCA formed in 1983, followed by GEO Group in 1984. This is when immigration detention began its rapid expansion.17 The first government contracts for both companies were for immigration detention facilities in the United States. In August, a federal judge halted the expansion of two new private immigration detention facilities in California. 22 Freedom for Immigrants and the Immigrant Legal Resource Center brought this novel legal challenge under a 2017 California state law called the Dignity Not Detention Act. The Dignity Not Detention Act is the first law in the country to outlaw private immigration detention contracting. Now other states such as Washington and Maryland are following California’s lead. These publicly-traded companies then began to pursue other Englishspeaking countries. For example, after European member states signed the Schengen agreement in 1990 to abolish border controls between member states, private prison companies began lobbying member states to secure the external borders by detaining immigrants.18 In the United Kingdom—the first European country to have outsourced detention to private companies19 —a U.S. citizen died at a GEO-run immigration detention facility in 2011 due to medical neglect. 20 Even inside U.S. immigration detention, people are organizing against the system. Freedom for Immigrants has tracked over 100 protests, sign-on letters, and hunger strikes led by people inside since the start of the pandemic. 23 For example, people at the privately-run Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia organized a labor strike. They refused to work in the laundry room, kitchen, and commissary to protest transfers, lack of PPE, and continued detention. 24 Likewise, Australia’s first private prison was operated by Corrections Corporation of Australia, an international venture of the U.S.-based CCA/CoreCivic. South Africa’s and New Zealand’s first private prisons were operated by GEO Group. The “success” of these publicly-traded, U.S.-based multinational prison corporations have inspired the founding of others, such as Management & Training Corporation, LaSalle Corrections, G4S, Mitie, Serco, Tascor, GEPSA, Emerald Correctional Management, and Community Education Centers. Despite thousands of lawsuits against private prisons worldwide—ranging from sexual battery to medical neglect to wrongful death—private immigration detention continues to expand. A WORLD WITHOUT DETENTION IS WITHIN REACH But this might soon be changing. While the pandemic is ravaging our communities, it also is exposing how immigration detention is not a safe or reasonable response to migration. Even GEO Group’s shareholders are starting to question the company’s efficacy. In July 2020, shareholders brought a securities class action lawsuit against GEO, alleging that the company misled investors about the effectiveness of its COVID-19 response and subjected people to significant health risks. 21 It should be clear by now that immigration detention is an archaic institution that only benefits the companies profiting off of this failed experiment. As the pandemic continues to reach inside immigration detention and across borders so too should our moral outrage. Multi-national prison corporations do not want immigrant rights advocates working in international solidarity with one another. Our work together threatens their stability and growth. We cannot and should not stand for this. Moreover, we have an opportunity to do something about it. International law has enshrined the right to community visitation in immigration detention, 25 and we can enforce this right. Community volunteers who visit people in immigration detention with groups such as Freedom for Immigrants have the power to consistently expose abuses rampant in immigration detention systems worldwide. It is time for advocates to work across borders so that we can build a world where no person is imprisoned for crossing one. CHRISTINA FIALHO Co-founder/Executive Director, Freedom for Immigrants 17 Freedom for Immigrants. “Map, subsection on History of Immigration Detention,” available at https://www.freedomforimmigrants.org/map. See also Freedom for Immigrants. “Detention Timeline,” available at https://www.freedomforimmigrants.org/detention-timeline. 18 See Transnational Institute. “Expanding the Fortress,” May 2018, available at https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/expanding_the_fortress_-_1.6_ may_11.pdf. See also 19 The Sentencing Project, “International Growth Trends in Prison Privatization, August 2013, available at https://sentencingproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/ International-Growth-Trends-in-Prison-Privatization.pdf. 20 The Guardian. “Inquest blasts immigration centre’s ‘shambolic’ records in US man’s death.” June 2014, available at https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/ jun/27/inquest-immigration-centre-shambolic-us-tourist-death. 21 https://www.dandodiary.com/2020/07/articles/coronavirus/private-prison-firm-hit-with-covid-19-outbreak-related-securities-suit/ 22 https://www.bakersfield.com/news/federal-judge-finds-serious-questions-over-mcfarlands-conduct-in-granting-permits-to-expand-immigrant-detention/ article_8c7fac7a-dc36-11ea-bea4-cff085cc5abe.html 23 Freedom for Immigrants. “Map, subsection on COVID-19 Reporting,” available at https://www.freedomforimmigrants.org/map. 24 Wessler, Seth Freed. “Fear, Illness, and Death in ICE Detention.” New York Times, July 10, 2020, available at https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/04/magazine/ covid-ice.html. 25 Fialho, Christina. “Let Us In: An Argument for the Right to Visitation,” in Immigration Detention, Risk, and Human Rights (Springer, 2016). idcoalition.org | westernsydney.edu.au/hadri 59