(The Center Square) – The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee wants the town of Mason to prove it legally approved a contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for a new detention center.
The Board of Aldermen voted 3-2, with two members not voting, to approve the contract with ICE after a meeting last week. The detention center would be located in the former West Tennessee Detention Center, which closed in 2021.
The ACLU said in a letter to town officials that the contract approval required four votes. The organization is also asking that the town stop all activities related to the contract and a separate contract with CoreCivic, a private prison company that would run the detention center. The board approved the CoreCivic contract 4-1 with two members not voting.
“This is a simple matter of following the rules: those in favor of the ICE contract needed a majority of votes to win — and they didn’t have it,” said Stella Yarbrough, legal director for the ACLU of Tennessee. “Officials cannot ignore their own laws to push through a harmful contract that will generate $30 million in corporate profits for a for-profit prison company. An abstention is not a ‘yes’ vote.”
The ACLU also said the approval process was not transparent. The organization is asking for communication and documents that were sent during discussions about the prison.
“Tennesseans deserve transparency and accountability from their elected officials, not illegitimate deals that endanger our communities,” said Phyllida Burlingame, interim executive director of the ACLU of Tennessee. “That transparency was completely absent in Mason, where the contract was kept from the public and even from the aldermen themselves until the moment of the vote.”
The ACLU asked Mason officials to respond to their requests within seven calendar days.
The opposition to the prison was mainly focused on immigration policies.
Protesters said backing the ICE detention center would make the town complicit in immigration policies they oppose.
The prison will bring in an estimated $325,000 in annual property taxes and pay a $200,000 impact fee, CoreCivic spokesman Ryan Gustin told The Center Square. The company is not involved in policies, he said.
“CoreCivic does not enforce immigration laws, arrest anyone who may be in violation of immigration laws, or have any say whatsoever in an individual’s deportation or release,” Gustin said. “CoreCivic also does not know the circumstances of individuals when they are placed in our facilities.”
