CRETE | A crowd of about 300 people jammed the Crete Township Hall to hear why a proposed immigrant detention facility should not be built in their village.
The meeting was hosted by the Interfaith Committee for Detained Immigrants.
Fred Tsao, a lawyer with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrants and Refugee Rights, spoke to the crowd regarding the status of many of the detained immigrants.
"The facility that is being proposed is a prison, pure and simple," Tsao said. "This 750-bed facility would increase the number of detainees in the Chicago area by 50 percent. These detainees are frequently deported after hearings, but many of them should not be deported."
There are three ICE detention facilities in Illinois. They are in Jefferson County (Mount Vernon), McHenry County (Woodstock) and Tri-County (Ullin).
Tsao said the federal government was deporting as many as 400,000 immigrants annually.
"The number has been increasing every year since 2007," Tsao said.
Jill Hornick, of Crete Township, spoke to the crowd about the economic concerns of building a facility in the village or the township.
"Everywhere that private prisons have been built, property values have gone down," Hornick said. "The plan for here is to build a medium-security prison. That means that detainees who have a criminal background and are being held on criminal charges will be in our village."
Hornick also questioned the cost to Crete when there are issues.
"Many of these facilities have issues such as riots and mattresses set on fire intentionally," she said. "Police and fire personnel will be taken away from the village to attend to these issues. At what cost to the village?"
Village officials were contacted last summer by Corrections Corporation of America with a proposal to build a 750-bed medium-security detention facility on acreage south of Burrville Road and north of Crete-Monee Road. The facility would be close to Balmoral Park.
On Friday, U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. released a statement saying he opposes the proposed detention facility in Crete.
"I don't want the south suburbs to become famous for prisons and for breaking up families," Jackson said in his statement.
Jackson went on to say he supports President Barack Obama's call to allow undocumented immigrants with no criminal record to remain in this country while they apply for citizenship.
Village Administrator Tom Durkin provided the following statement to The Times on Monday afternoon:
"The village has no additional information at this time regarding the proposed Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility. As the Village has indicated in the past, informational meetings will be scheduled and sponsored by the village when and if the proposed project moves forward for consideration. To date, there have been no project approvals granted by the Village of Crete President and Board of Trustees.
"The village was notified in June of 2011 that the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency tentatively selected the village as a potential location and partner for the operation and management of a new generation detention facility for the Chicago region. This notification resulted from an initial request for potential sites from ICE and a responsive proposal submitted by Corrections Corporation of America and the village for use of a parcel in an industrial district that CCA believes is ideally suited for the ICE proposal. Village officials and CCA will work with ICE in further assessing this partnership opportunity. More information will be available once the planning process occurs."
