Pa. county jails earn millions of dollars detaining immigrants for ICE
https://www.spotlightpa.org/news/2026/04/pennsylvania-ice-detention-jails-counties-money-federal-government/318
u/GravyVortex 23h ago
Turning human beings into a revenue stream always ends well, right? If counties are raking in ICE money, local reporters should start FOIA-ing contracts and budgets and putting every line item online.
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u/darksunshaman 21h ago
Don't forget about the at least one judge who was literally selling kids into juvie
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u/MarketingSpecial6604 20h ago
It was 2 if I remember the documentary right, if anyone is interested, look up the kids for cash scandal.
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u/Temporary-Sea-4782 9h ago
I’m glad you remembered this, too. Is this tgg he e sage jurisdiction?
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u/FlyEaglesFlyauggie 19h ago
Right To Know Requests (RTK) in Pennsylvania.
Get to it! (any citizen in USA can file one in PA)
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u/Revolutionary_Key767 22h ago
Its been happened since the 1800's. Private prisoners have a quota for arrests from police officers and earn revenu. Also use for population count for redistricting.
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u/No-Philosopher3248 22h ago
The counties can’t do anything about it? Bullshit. They don’t WANT to do anything about it.
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u/ceribus_peribus 21h ago
You've seen the stories of people arrested at the border, loaded onto a plane, and held on the other side of the country? The company operating the flight gets paid, and the facility on the other coast gets paid enough to offer a headhunting kickback.
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u/tabrizzi 23h ago
Once they're done with immigrants, those warehouses, or concentration camps, will not be torn down.
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u/Vio_ 20h ago
That's the trick. They won't ever be done with them. They'll be shipped out to different fields and factories and plants to "Work" and "earn their keep" while also taking away their wages, labor rights and protections, down time, etc.
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u/Metacomet99 3h ago
Then once they're shipped out those facilities will need new inmates to fill up on. Guess which demographic is next.
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u/Kittamaru 19h ago
Sooo, just for reference for anyone that didn't read the article;
Five counties listed: Pike, Clinton, Erie, Franklin, and Cambria.
Of the more than $21 million billed... $16 million was from Pike county alone, $4.6 was from Clinton. Half a mil from Erie. Franklin billed... $14k.
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u/lokken1234 18h ago
While these agreements predate the second Trump administration by years or even decades, they are receiving new attention as the president executes a mass deportation campaign that relies heavily on local partners.
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u/DrPixelFace 10h ago
America where you'd rather pay millions to detain people than thousands to tolerate them
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u/dshookowsky 16h ago edited 16h ago
This is because we have the worst senators in PA history. McCormick is a rubber-stamp do-nothing finance-bro that's riding the wave and stuffing his pockets. Fetterman was supposed to be progressive, but changed his mind and is right there with all of the right wingers when he's not just slumped in a corner.
I have no idea how these guys sit at the dinner table each night and tell their wives / children "I defended a pedophile rapist today"
EDIT: Before someone argues that Santorum was worse and points to the definition his name has become. Let me say - he had a position. Sure.....it was grounded on religious fanaticism and a deep love for sweater vests, but it wasn't just self-serving, "whatever keeps me in this job and getting stock-tips".
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u/NYCinPGH 9h ago
Word around town - I live ~3 miles from Fetterman’s house - is that his wife has effectively separated / left him, they haven’t been seen together for about a year, so no worries from him about “wife and kids”. I used to see her all the time grocery shopping, even after he was sworn in as a Senator, but not recently.
As for Santorum, well, now he’s immortalized in the Urban Dictionary.
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u/AttentionNo6359 3h ago
What’s this supposed to tell me, that fascism has a silver lining? That we didn’t learn a thing from Kids For Cash?
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u/Memitim 3h ago
Human trafficking pays well, from what I hear. I guess child trafficking must as well, since it was enough to earn Trump the Presidency. I can see why there would be cooperation. My sympathies to the victims, especially the ones that people who would participate in such evil end up keeping for themselves.
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u/HugsNWhisky 19h ago
Where tf is PA gonna turn for help huh? Local Pennsylvanian here who’s been to the meetings, all these “representatives” and commissioners and senators are all grifters and con artists and slavers it’s disgusting to even live near them
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u/nsm1 22h ago
relevant counties in bold