The Bureau of Prisons has begun the process of acquiring at least one new private prison specifically for housing undocumented immigrants, BuzzFeed News reports. "Given Attorney General [Jeff] Sessions' strong focus on a priority for the investigation and prosecution of immigration offenses, we do expect an increase in additional immigration offenders over the weeks and months ahead," said the acting director of the bureau, Dr. Thomas Kane.
The Bureau of Prisons is seeking bids for a prison with up to "9,540 beds." "The population will be low-security adult male inmates that are primarily criminal aliens with ordinarily 90 months or less remaining to serve on their sentences," the notice says.
"We're extremely concerned," the American Civil Liberties Union's deputy director of legislative affairs in Washington, Jesselyn McCurdy, told BuzzFeed News. "We have seen how people have been mistreated, abused, and in many cases, not been given proper medical care and died as a result of being in private prisons."
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