Cory Booker's new immigration would replace private detention centers with 'evidence-based non-profit alternatives'

Cory Booker.
(Image credit: Mike Segar/Reuters)

Executive action for executive action. That's how Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) plans to address immigration reform if he's elected to the Oval Office in 2020.

Booker unveiled his immigration plan on Tuesday. While his vision is bold, many of the steps he would take to address the issue align with those favored by his Democratic primary contenders, including shutting down "inhumane" Department of Homeland Security facilities, reversing President Trump's "zero tolerance" policy, reforming Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and addressing root causes by working with regional partners in Central America. He'd also phase out the use of private, for-profit migrant detention centers over a three-year period, which reportedly account for roughly two-thirds of all beds in the detention system. That would significantly reduce space, but Booker would adopt "evidence-based non-profit alternatives" to detention to counteract that. The plan does not detail the alternatives.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.