"The power of protest depends not only on how many turn out, but also on what legislative, judicial, and civil society institutions exist to enact the will of those marching in the streets." ~ Cynthia P. Schneider
A landscape view of an open area next to a path with short solar lamps along it edges. In the distance is a bright patch of yellow with red tip group of dogwood adding some bright color to the browns of winter vegetation and leafless trees under a mostly blues sky.
“There’s a private interest behind the #detention and the incarceration of our community,” said an #activist#protesting the facilities.
by Sophie Hurwitz, March 6, 2025
Excerpt: "Late Wednesday afternoon, private prison company CoreCivic announced it would be reopening a notorious family detention center in South Texas, under an amended contract with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The facility, first built in 2014, will house up to 2,400 people, including children. It had been shut down last year to save costs, after years of reports suggesting poor treatment, including a report of one toddler who died due to a lack of medical care.
"The reopening is part of a trend. CoreCivic isn’t the only company bringing back facilities. We are at the beginning of what looks like a private prison boom, as the groups profit off President Donald Trump’s plans for mass deportation. They are set to make billions. As the Washington Post reported, the GEO Group and CoreCivic stand to benefit in particular from #Trump’s immigration plans—the companies hold at least 16 vacant facilities that can be reopened within months for mass detention and deportation.
"The GEO Group announced in late February that it would be reopening #DelaneyHall in #NewarkNJ, as a “massive” immigration detention center with 1,000 beds. In California, ICE is considering repurposing and reopening the women’s prison #FCIDublin, closed last year due to mass #SexualAbuse, for #ImmigrantDetention. In Baldwin, Michigan, ICE and the GEO Group have expressed interest in reopening #NorthLake Correctional Facility, a former private prison shuttered in 2022. (A Biden administration order directed the Department of Justice to allow contracts with private prison groups to expire.) In #LeavenworthKS, CoreCivic looks likely to partner with ICE to reopen yet another shuttered private prison, documents obtained by the #ACLU revealed.
"As of February 27, ICE held 43,759 detainees, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a nonpartisan data-gathering organization. Trump is putting pressure on ICE to increase the number of arrests per day. His administration has already fired one ICE director, ostensibly for not deporting enough people.
"In the communities surrounding these new jails for migrants, activists and politicians are fighting back. In Newark, where the GEO Group stands to make $1.2 billion by reopening Delaney Hall, the immigrant rights organization Make the Road is planning a rally against the jail March 11."
Tomorrow dozens of national organizations are teaming up to host protests in cities across the United States. With hundreds of thousands of people hitting the streets for the first time since the effective collapse of the constitutional republic, there’s a growing need to widely disseminate information on keeping ourselves and others safe. To that end, we’re sharing a new zine based on text from PrivacyGuides.org, which includes best practices and helpful tips for smartphone security, protests, and mass surveillance. You can read and download the free guide at https://archive.org/details/protesters-guide-to-smartphone-security.
In Asheville, protesters will be rallying in Pack Square from 11am to 1pm. Members of our collective will be there distributing copies of “The Protesters’ Guide to Smartphone Security” along with practical zines for folks interested in taking effective action against fascism.
Looking for more opportunities to pick up introductory materials? We maintain a table of free resources at Firestorm that we think everyone should read! We’d also encourage you to check out the zines available at https://www.sproutdistro.com/catalog/zines/direct-action.
A photo of a black and white zine in someone’s hand. The zine cover is styled like a phone screen and attributes the text to Jonah Aragon. Firestorm’s bookstore is visible in the background in soft focus.