Torrance County, NM (KKOB) – Cibola and Torrance counties have signed new contracts with CoreCivic for the operation of private prisons with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. These are the immigration detention centers to house immigrant detainees without any county involvement.
The contracts were signed on April 30th, and went into effect on May 1st. County governments had been the government intermediaries between ICE and CoreCivic in those two counties when previous contracts were signed, but a new state law that begins on May 20th forbids state agencies or governments to enter into any agreements witn ICE.
The only county that has had a contract directly with ICE is Otero County for its owned detention center in Chaparral across from El Paso, TX .
Otero county signed a new contract with ICE a month ago to bypass the new law but the state’s DOJ has ruled that the contract is illegal.
