Why Is GOP Speaking Out Against Immigration Reform? -BECAUSE- Private Prison Execs Told Them To

[kpete]

Why are so many Republicans speaking out against comprehensive immigration reform? Perhaps because private prison executives told them to. Some of our nation's biggest opponents to commonsense reforms, like a pathway to citizenship, happen to be recipients of prison industry cash. For example, Republican immigration reform standard-bearer, Marco Rubio, has scored big with the private prison industry, raking in a whopping $27,300 in donations from the GEO Group. Contributions like that make sure members of Congress have a vested interest to keep the prison cells full of undocumented immigrants waiting to be deported. According to The Think Progress Blog, immigration detention has more than doubled private prison profits since 1995, and those sentenced for immigration offenses make up one of the fastest-growing segments of our overflowing federal prison population. It's time to get profit out of the prison industry, and money out of Congress, so we can get some honest immigration reform in our nation.

http://truth-out.org/news/item/14739-on-the-news-with-thom-hartmann-the-biggest-opponents-of-immigration-reform-are-those-receiving-prison-industry-cash-and-more

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Among members of Congress, the top two recipients of contributions from CCA are its home-state senators, Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker of Tennessee. The Republican lawmakers, each of whom has received more than $50,000 from CCA according to data compiled by the Sunlight Foundation, represent important swing votes for advancing a reform bill through the Senate. Another top CCA recipient is Arizona Republican John McCain, who has gotten $32,146 from CCA and is a member of the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” that is working to draft legislation. His fellow Gang of Eight member, Marco Rubio, ranks among the top recipients of contributions from the Florida-based GEO Group, receiving $27,300 in donations over the course of his career.

In recent years, each of these senators has sponsored bills that would have increased the detention and incarceration of immigrants. Legislation put forward by Alexander in 2009, for example, would have provided for “increased alien detention facilities.” And a 2011 bill cosponsored by McCain and Rubio sought to expand Operation Streamline, a federal enforcement program that makes illegal entry a criminal offense in some jurisdictions.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/02/21/1624061/report-republicans-with-influence-on-immigration-debate-are-top-recipients-of-private-prison-contributions/

[libodem]

1. Shiver

[cbrer]

2. There are so many reasons

Our government needs to be replaced. The way we select leaders, what they're allowed to do while in office, and after they leave, must change if we're to save the earth.