Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Setting record straight about the Broward Transitional Center
Bad public policy can sometimes make for good political theater.
That is clearly the case with recent attacks on the Broward Transitional Center and the longtime government service provider that operates it, The GEO Group. A recent opinion piece by Felix Montanez from the Southern Poverty Law Center included gross distortions of the facts.
It’s political theater, and it’s absurd.
For nearly two decades — under both Democratic and Republican leadership — BTC has provided safe, dignified and culturally sensitive services for individuals in the care of federal immigration authorities. The men and women who staff these facilities work on the front lines to make a difference in the lives of individuals who are most in need.
The facts show that modern contractor-operated facilities — like the Broward Transitional Center — dramatically improve conditions and care for individuals going through the immigration review process.
These facilities are held to higher standards than local jails.
BTC provides access to critical services such as 24/7 medical care, legal counsel, state-of-the-art recreational facilities, nutritional menus approved by a registered dietitian, and religious and counseling services. BTC operates today under rigorous oversight and performance standards that were strengthened under the Obama administration, including onsite federal employees responsible for monitoring contractor compliance.
Just last year, the center earned a perfect 100% accreditation score from the American Correctional Association.
Facts matter, and neither government contractors nor the men and women in their care should be used as political props for activists whose actual aim is to end current federal immigration detention policy, which contractors have zero role in setting.
To be clear: The federal government — not government contractors — determines all aspects of our nation’s immigration policy. Contractors have no say on the enforcement of these laws, nor do we lobby on issues that determine how ICE processing facilities are populated.
These activists also fail to explain how abandoning decades of facility upgrades and forward-thinking, innovative care programs — all to score political points — helps to create a “fairer and more humane” immigration system.
Simply put, it doesn’t.
For more than 35 years, federal contractors have worked with Democratic and Republican leaders — including eight years of the Obama administration — to be part of the solution by helping build the foundation of a modern, forward-thinking system.
Taxpayers deserve a thoughtful public debate about our immigration system, but it ought to be based on facts, not political disinformation.