Detention center: Tacoma better than alternative sites

Re: “Close local migrant detention center now,” (TNT, 8/9).

I disagree with the op-ed writer that “Tacoma residents and leaders must demand ‘not on our watch’” and close the detention center on the Tacoma Tideflats.

It wouldn’t achieve the change in conditions the author described. If closed, detainees would continue to receive the same treatment, only at a different location.

GEO Group is running this facility on behalf of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Change needs to start at that level.

As long as our federal government continues to lock immigrants up, detainees have more advantages at the Tacoma facility. There is a breadth and depth of volunteer assistance here that’s not found in other areas.

Examples include: NWIRP, AIDNW, countless church communities and others who assist with translation, legal services and housing transition.

Screenings for communicable disease must be mandatory, not optional. This kind of oversight would help assure the public that detainees are given appropriate health care throughout their stay.

Then when they’re released, we would know they are safe to enter the community.

This story was originally published August 13, 2020 at 7:50 AM with the headline "Detention center: Tacoma better than alternative sites."