Is it no surprise that CCA won’t show face at the Pembroke Pines town meeting? They want to build a facility that will make them millions, but they won’t attend a meeting to explain to residents why they want to make money off of detaining immigrants in their town.

Via The Florida Independent

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Pembroke Pines elected officials confirmed that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials and residents of Southwest Ranches and Pembroke Pines will meet this Saturday to discuss a proposed immigration detention center.

Pembroke Pines City Commissioner Angelo Castillo confirmed during a community meeting in early October that ICE had agreed to come to South Florida to discuss the center with city residents who oppose the project. Castillo told The Florida Independent that he planned to travel to Washington, D.C., to confirm the details of that visit.

The Southwest Ranches Town Counil announced last week that the Nov. 5 meeting would include a representative of the Corrections Corporation of America (commonly known as CCA), the largest private immigration detention contractor in the country. At this point, a CCA representative is not scheduled to be present at Saturday’s meeting.

The Broward County town of Southwest Ranches is partnering with CCA, which according to Detention Watch Network “operates a total of 14 ICE-contracted facilities with a total of 14,556 beds. In 2009, CCA averaged a daily population of 6,199 detained immigrants.”

Residents of Pembroke Pines and the town of Southwest Ranches, who have voiced their opposition to the federally funded and privately managed detention center, point out that the proposed site:

• Has the potential to house 1,800 detainees with 432,400 square feet of gross floor space.
• At capacity, it will be the largest detention center in the U.S.
• Will be 2.25 miles away from four schools.