When people envisioned the future for America, it probably did not involve locking humans in cages. But that is exactly what is happening.

America was built on immigration. By those escaping countries and those looking for so called better opportunities. Now, those who come to America, attempting to seek refuge, are being treated like wild animals that need to be locked away.

Trump’s administration is taking a very serious zero tolerance approach towards those attempting to cross the border from South America and Mexico into the United States. The administration is prosecuting as many apprehended immigrants as possible. But the children who are also apprehended in these situations are thrown into a plane where they are treated like they do not exist. Senator Jeff Merkley visited the center these children are kept in, and described the scene: “big cages made out of fencing and then wire and nets stretched across the top of them so people can’t climb out of them.” He added that in some parts of the facility, “it’s just a concrete floor and people are being given these space blankets to sleep on.”

Attorney General Sessions stated that the children were well taken care of in these facilities.

When minors are apprehended at the border, they are put in this facility for three days, transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services, then put in temporary shelters, and then placed in foster care. They are pushed around from place to place, ultimately never reunited with their families.

An estimated 1,358 children have been ripped from their families since last year. The stories that have surfaced paint a picture of how brutal some of the tactics the government uses are. “A public defender who works in South Texas told the Boston Globe that several of her clients in government custody say Border Patrol agents took their children away, ostensibly to give them baths. As the hours passed, the lawyer said, the women began to realize their kids weren’t coming back.”

The adults who are apprehended are also treated inhumanely, captured for profit like hunting prizes.

There are over 200 immigrant prisons; and roughly 440,000 immigrants are locked up each year. Americans are taxed $2 million a year to keep these people locked up. And the companies that own these private prisons, who are apart of this hunt for profit type of game, are making the most money. And the more laws there are and crackdown of them, the more these companies make.

Corrections Corporation of America, The GEO Group, and Management Training Corp. manage most of the corrections centers. When asked about their influence on laws being passed to profit their corporation; CCA spokesman Steve Owen stated “As a matter of long-standing corporate policy, CCA does not lobby on issues that would determine the basis for an individual’s detention or incarceration.” However, the average nightly cost to keep someone detained is $166. The more that are locked up, the more money made.

Almost two decades ago, CCA was on the verge of bankruptcy. But last year, CCA made $162 million. 43 percent of that net income was federal contracts. GEO’s net income has jumped up $61.7 in the past almost two decades as well.

It is clear the only goal here is to make money, and to leave human beings rotting away in cells.

By: Chelsea Hinkofer

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