Trump in 'All-Out Attack' on Detained Immigrants: Report

Dozens of detainees at an immigration prison in New Mexico are being denied counsel, enabling the booming private-prison system to effectively isolate them, according to a new report by the National Immigration Justice Center (NIJC). 

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"The hurdles immigrants at Cibola face when they try to find a lawyer are not an anomaly; they are the norm,” said Heidi Altman, NIJC’s director of policy and author of the report.

"Immigrants detained in Cibola and many other immigration jails nationally are unable to avail themselves of this right because the capacity of nearby legal service organizations to provide representation is dwarfed by the need."

The Cibola County Correctional Center, which is located in rural New Mexico, is nearly 90 minutes away from Albuquerque. It was turned into an immigration prison in October last year and is now run by CoreCivic, one of the largest private prison operators in the United States. 

According to the NIJC, there are 21 immigration lawyers in New Mexico and Texas, but only six percent of the 689 immigrants currently being held in Cibola – a total of 42 detainees – have access to legal counsel. 

New Mexico has the highest number of state prisoners being held in private prison. In 2015, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 42 percent of its state inmates were held in privately run jails, the report notes. 

"DHS knows that jailing people far from their loved ones and far from lawyers strips them of their ability to effectively defend against deportation," Altman said. "Building more prisons to detain more immigrants in isolated locations is central to the administration's all-out attack on immigrant communities in the United States." 

Per the contract documents, over the period of five years, CoreCivic will be paid $150 million for detaining immigrants at Cibola with county officials and ICE that amounts to a no-bid contract with the federal government, Reveal News reported. 

Trump administration is planning to implement the Cibola model throughout the country, in Chicago, Detroit, St. Paul, Salt Lake City, and southern Texas, according to the NIJ