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- Expanding the Northwest Detention Center
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April 16, 2009 - On any given day, 30,000 people are being held in detention centers across the country. With plans to expand the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma well underway, Jessica Partnow finds out how the facility works and what it feels like to be detained there.
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Piece Description
April 16, 2009 - On any given day, 30,000 people are being held in detention centers across the country. With plans to expand the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma well underway, Jessica Partnow finds out how the facility works and what it feels like to be detained there.
Broadcast History
Originally produced for/broadcast on KXOT/KUOW2
Transcript
Script
(8 sec ambi tail in)
The immigration detention business is booming. In 2003 Immigration and Customs Enforcement had a budget of 9 million dollars for locating and deporting fugitive aliens. By 2008, that number had multiplied more than 24 times to 218 million dollars.
Before the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma opened, the entire Seattle-Tacoma area only had space for 200 immigration detainees. Today the Center has 1,000 beds and employs 200 people. And in keeping with the national pattern, it’s set to grow.
ICE recently announced its intention to expand it to 1,575 beds later this year.
DANKERS: My name is Lorie Dankers and I am a spokesman for US Immigration & Customs Enforcement out of Seattle and I work with the Detention and Removal Program as well as the other programs within ICE. Nationwide there is a trend to have increased detention space to help increase com...
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Intro and Outro
INTRO:In recent years the Pacific Northwest has increasingly become a focus for border patrol and worksite immigration raids. The Obama administration’s first raid happened right here in Bellingham on February 24th and led to 28 arrests. For undocumented workers who are caught up in these operations, the future can be uncertain. Many of them will spend at least some time in one of the country's hundreds of immigration detention facilities as their fates are decided.
Amnesty International released a report March 25th condemning immigration detention and calling it a broken and damaging system. On any given day almost 30 thousand people are being held in these Detention Centers, which are run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement – or ICE. Today, Jessica Partnow explores the growth of one of those facilities - the Northwest Detention Center, just a few minutes from downtown Tacoma.
OUTRO:Jessica Partnow is cofounder of The Common Language Project, based in Seattle, and is currently reporting on education issues from Pakistan. Sarah Stuteville (STEW-teh-ville) contributed reporting. For an audio slideshow from inside the detention center visit clpmag.org/nwdc.
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