Bakersfield, California — The Dolores Huerta Foundation has announced that it will strongly oppose the proposal to convert the decommissioned California City Correctional Facility into an ICE detention center at the city council meeting on Tuesday.
Camila Chávez, the organization’s executive director, is expected to read the formal statement, according to a DHF press release issued on Tuesday.
“CoreCivic may offer high wages, but the long-term cost to this community — economic instability, increased ICE raids, and family separation — is far greater,” Camila Chávez said in a release. “We urge California City to reject the false promise of prosperity and stand against the expansion of immigrant detention.”
The California City Correctional Facility, owned by CoreCivic, a private prison company, was deactivated in March 2024.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement stated that its increased enforcement operations resulted in a higher number of arrests and that they require more space to detain these individuals.
“While we cannot confirm individual pre-decisional conversations, we can confirm that ICE is exploring all options to meet its current and future detention requirements,” the agency told 17 News.
According to DHF, the statement will discuss for-profit detention facilities that allegedly fail to generate long-term economic growth and instead impose unexpected costs on local governments.
The organization also claimed that expanding detention facilities promotes immigration enforcement, making California City “complicit in a system of trauma and displacement.”
According to the release, DHF supports more community-led alternatives to incarceration, such as housing, health care, and education.
“Our communities deserve jobs that build futures, not cages,” Dolores Huerta said in a statement. “We stand with California City residents who are rejecting detention as a path forward.”
California City’s city council meeting is set to begin at 5 p.m.
