ICE cracks on Dwight detention center

Rep. Cassidy, Sen. Peters credited with enforcing new state law banning private prisons

State Rep. Kelly Cassidy forcefully defended a state law banning private detention centers that she sponsored and passed, signed into law by Gov. Pritzker last year. (One Illinois/Ted Cox)

By Ted Cox

ICE has cracked on its plans to build a detention center for undocumented immigrants in Dwight.

The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights cheered word Tuesday that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has canceled plans for the facility, proposed for up to 1,000 prisoners, to be built on a 40-acre farm on the outskirts of Dwight, just northeast of Pontiac.

ICIRR issued a news release Tuesday saying it was “elated” at the formal word that “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement no longer has a requirement for a Contract Detention Facility within a 180-mile radius of the ICE Chicago Field Office” in downtown Chicago.

“Thanks to the leadership of the bill’s sponsors, Rep. Kelly Cassidy and Sen. Robert Peters, who spoke up forcefully in response to ICE’s continuing movement on the Dwight bid, ICE has received the message and ended the process,” ICIRR stated.

ICE’s original plans to convert a women’s prison to a detention center last year prompted immediate action in the General Assembly. Cassidy and Peters passed a bill reaffirming and expanding a ban on privately run prisons, signed into law by Gov. Pritzker.

Word broke late last month that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was initiating the process to build a separate detention center in Dwight by ordering an environmental study for the farm site to prepare for construction. Cassidy immediately answered with a statement saying: “The state has had a ban on privately run, for-profit prisons for decades, but legislation passed last year clarified that ban should also apply to non-criminal settings such as ICE detention centers.”

Peters echoed that, saying: “Whatever deal ICE is trying to cut is cloaked in the promise of jobs and profits, but is nothing more than a flagrant violation of state law.”

Earlier this month, Chicago immigration groups and activists also spoke out against the proposed detention center.

ICE quietly filed its formal cancellation of the plans on a government website late Monday.