Roughly three dozen individuals spoke Tuesday night time in favor of the decision, with only one speaker opposed. A type of who spoke was Liz Schmitt, 85, a member of the native chapter of Indivisible, a grassroots progressive community working to fight President Donald Trump’s agenda.
“I acknowledge it’s federal property and the town has completely no authorized authority, however public outcry can go a good distance,” she mentioned. “The council listened to the residents and did what the residents requested, and I’m very happy with that.”
The vote adopted a gathering final month the place scores of neighborhood members urged the council to take a extra public stance towards turning the jail into an ICE detention facility.
In keeping with Josey, metropolis staffers have written to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which owns the property, and to the Division of Homeland Safety, urging them to not reopen the FCI Dublin website. She mentioned the council can also be in communication with Dublin’s state and federal representatives.
“Whereas it’s true that we would not have any direct affect or any direct management, we consider that we will make our emotions identified,” Josey mentioned.
Democratic Reps. Eric Swalwell and Mark DeSaulnier, who signify Dublin in Congress, have each spoken out towards turning the jail into an ICE facility.
Even earlier than the Trump administration started vastly ramping up immigration enforcement, ICE was looking for extra detention house in California and elsewhere within the Western U.S. Final yr, the company issued a request for details about potential services inside a two-hour drive of its San Francisco area workplace. Right this moment, the closest ICE lockup is almost 300 miles away.
A brand new ICE facility opened in late August within the Kern County city of California Metropolis. That facility, which is already dealing with allegations of substandard situations, is privately run, as are the opposite six ICE detention facilities in California.
Neighborhood activists worry a deliberate switch of FCI Dublin out of the possession of the Federal Bureau of Prisons could possibly be step one in handing the property over to ICE or a non-public jail firm, which may run it as an immigration detention middle.
In a Dec. 4 letter to Dublin officers, the BOP mentioned it’s planning to show the Dublin facility over to the U.S. Normal Companies Administration, which handles federal actual property, as a result of the property is just too costly to maintain up.
“The BOP has decided that the Federal Correctional Establishment (FCI) situated in Dublin, California (FCI Dublin), the place many of the buildings and infrastructure have been developed within the Seventies, is not wanted to accommodate inmates, requires substantial capital funding to satisfy requirements, and is expensive to function and keep,” the letter said.
ICE has not but responded to KQED’s request for remark.
