California’s private prison ban is in jeopardy again.
The owner of Adelanto’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement-contracted detention facilities won a second day in court after the Ninth Court of Appeals ordered the case against the ban to be reconsidered.
The law, passed in October, 2019, bans most private detention facilities in California, including facilities contracted by the federal government.
The GEO Group, which runs the Adelanto ICE Processing Center and Desert View Annex, challenged the case with the federal government, but the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California sided with the ban Oct. 8.
The two Adelanto facilities have held 329 individuals since January 2021, at a combined average of 216 days per individual, according to ICE data.
The GEO Group runs five other detention facilities in California, and 113 across the United States.
U.S. Rep. Norma Torres (D-Pomona) wrote a letter June 2021, signed by U.S. Rep. Peter Aguilar (D-San Bernardino) and 22 other representatives, asking the Department of Justice to withdraw from the case.
The split decision ruled that the law impeded federal immigration enforcement and discriminated against the federal government by carving out a 2028 deadline for state contracts.“
California cannot intrude into the realm of the federal government’s exclusive powers to detain undocumented and other removable immigrants if the state law conflicts with federal law,” the majority opinion, written by Appellate Judge Kenneth Lee, reads.
Appellate Judge Mary Murguia dissented. She said the 2028-deadline was due to a court order which forces California to reduce its prison overcrowding, which would be impossible if all private prisons were immediately closed.
Murguia said the law was not against the “clear and manifest purpose of Congress,” and “there is no specific federal statute or regulation that AB32 directly contradicts.”
