More than a year after a California jail released, and then again began redetaining, immigrants who are under Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that the site’s contract will be coming to an end.
It’s a major win for advocates and immigrants formerly detained at Yuba County Jail, which is the final remaining jail in the state to still hold such an agreement. The agreement has been in place for 30 years. It will now be terminated within two months, officials said.
“A part of me can finally be at peace knowing that the place where I spent the worst two years of my life is finally closing,” said Carlos Sauceda, who was jailed at Yuba for two years. “Today is a day of victory for those of us who were detained at Yuba County Jail, for our families and for the advocates who have fought to make this possible.”
RELATED STORY: Months after releasing remaining immigrant, California jail is once again locking people up for ICE
Yuba had since 1979 been operating under a court-ordered consent decree “due to numerous constitutional violations and lack of adequate care,” advocates said in 2021 in urging for the termination of the jail’s agreement. They were joined by two dozen House lawmakers, who said that Yuba (along with the Otay Mesa Detention Facility and Adelanto Detention Facility) had been under multiple administrations “operating in a substandard manner, resulting in repeated violations of the ICE standards and the excessive waste of federal funds.”
In a significant development that followed, an immigrant who had been detained at Yuba for three years was released. He’d been the final immigrant still detained at the jail. But in a blow to advocates who’d hoped Ricardo Vasquez Cruz’s release would lead to a contract termination, Yuba again began to detain immigrants just a few weeks later.
Welcome news came this past Friday, when local and federal officials confirmed the termination of the Intergovernmental Service Agreement (IGSA). Advocates and a number of news outlets said that four immigrants remain detained at the jail. Rather than transferring them elsewhere as appears to be the plan, advocates urged officials to release them to their own homes and communities.
“Directly impacted individuals, advocates and legal service providers have worked tirelessly for years to end the contract between ICE and the Yuba County Jail,” said the Yuba Liberation Coalition. “Today we proudly celebrate the end of a lucrative agreement that caused immense harm to our communities. We call for the immediate release of the remaining detained community members—we have depopulated the facility in the past without transfers and believe this is both possible and just.”
In recent days, the Biden administration has also announced that a Pennsylvania detention facility that formerly jailed migrant families but has since detained adult women will also be losing its immigration contract. Advocates have also urged the release of women from that facility, saying that they’re “not going to finish until every woman here is free and not transferred to another location,” WITF reported.
California has passed law that bans new contracts on for-profit prisons and immigrant detention (though its currently being fought in the courts by private prison profiteers). The Yuba Liberation Coalition said that officials shockingly extended Yuba’s contract through nearly the next century in response to that law.
“In 2018, after the state banned new contracts between local law enforcement and ICE, the government extended the IGSA with Yuba indefinitely, setting the date of expiration to the year 2099. The contract awarded the county jail located in Marysville, California over $8.6 million dollars of taxpayer money per year to detain individuals fighting their civil immigration cases.”
RELATED STORIES:
Last person detained by ICE at California jail is now free following advocacy from groups, lawmakers
'Repeated violations': California lawmakers call on DHS to end three ICE contracts in state
Pennsylvania detention facility long at center of community protests to lose ICE contract in January
It’s a major win for advocates and immigrants formerly detained at Yuba County Jail, which is the final remaining jail in the state to still hold such an agreement. The agreement has been in place for 30 years. It will now be terminated within two months, officials said.
“A part of me can finally be at peace knowing that the place where I spent the worst two years of my life is finally closing,” said Carlos Sauceda, who was jailed at Yuba for two years. “Today is a day of victory for those of us who were detained at Yuba County Jail, for our families and for the advocates who have fought to make this possible.”
RELATED STORY: Months after releasing remaining immigrant, California jail is once again locking people up for ICE
Yuba had since 1979 been operating under a court-ordered consent decree “due to numerous constitutional violations and lack of adequate care,” advocates said in 2021 in urging for the termination of the jail’s agreement. They were joined by two dozen House lawmakers, who said that Yuba (along with the Otay Mesa Detention Facility and Adelanto Detention Facility) had been under multiple administrations “operating in a substandard manner, resulting in repeated violations of the ICE standards and the excessive waste of federal funds.”
In a significant development that followed, an immigrant who had been detained at Yuba for three years was released. He’d been the final immigrant still detained at the jail. But in a blow to advocates who’d hoped Ricardo Vasquez Cruz’s release would lead to a contract termination, Yuba again began to detain immigrants just a few weeks later.
Welcome news came this past Friday, when local and federal officials confirmed the termination of the Intergovernmental Service Agreement (IGSA). Advocates and a number of news outlets said that four immigrants remain detained at the jail. Rather than transferring them elsewhere as appears to be the plan, advocates urged officials to release them to their own homes and communities.
“Directly impacted individuals, advocates and legal service providers have worked tirelessly for years to end the contract between ICE and the Yuba County Jail,” said the Yuba Liberation Coalition. “Today we proudly celebrate the end of a lucrative agreement that caused immense harm to our communities. We call for the immediate release of the remaining detained community members—we have depopulated the facility in the past without transfers and believe this is both possible and just.”
In recent days, the Biden administration has also announced that a Pennsylvania detention facility that formerly jailed migrant families but has since detained adult women will also be losing its immigration contract. Advocates have also urged the release of women from that facility, saying that they’re “not going to finish until every woman here is free and not transferred to another location,” WITF reported.
California has passed law that bans new contracts on for-profit prisons and immigrant detention (though its currently being fought in the courts by private prison profiteers). The Yuba Liberation Coalition said that officials shockingly extended Yuba’s contract through nearly the next century in response to that law.
“In 2018, after the state banned new contracts between local law enforcement and ICE, the government extended the IGSA with Yuba indefinitely, setting the date of expiration to the year 2099. The contract awarded the county jail located in Marysville, California over $8.6 million dollars of taxpayer money per year to detain individuals fighting their civil immigration cases.”
RELATED STORIES:
Last person detained by ICE at California jail is now free following advocacy from groups, lawmakers
'Repeated violations': California lawmakers call on DHS to end three ICE contracts in state
Pennsylvania detention facility long at center of community protests to lose ICE contract in January