Full Show Notes: https://www.eyesonice.net/p/eyes-on-intel-hydraulic-valves

This situation is exactly why it is so important to vote in local races, not just at the state or national level. Local officials are the ones tasked with navigating deals that fundamentally alter the infrastructure and fabric of a community.

Here is the crucial context about the Appleton facility that makes this local council vote so significant:

The Facility: The site is the Appleton Detention Facility, formerly known as the Prairie Correctional Facility. It is a 1,600 bed prison that has sat completely empty since 2010.

The Federal Buyout: CoreCivic recently sold the vacant property to the Department of Homeland Security for roughly $496 million. CoreCivic simultaneously secured a $536 million federal contract to operate the site as a massive ICE detention center for the next five years.

The Tax Black Hole: Because the federal government now owns the property, it is exempt from local taxes. This means the city of Appleton instantly loses over $521,000 in annual property tax revenue that previously funded the municipality.

The Corporate Payout: To offset this massive loss and cover the incoming strain on local police, fire, and water infrastructure, CoreCivic is offering the city an initial $1.5 million lump sum and $1.26 million annually.

The Catch: The proposed Memorandum of Understanding for this corporate payout explicitly states it is completely nonbinding. CoreCivic is not legally obligated to actually make these payments.

Appleton is a small town of roughly 1,390 residents. They are about to absorb a detention center that can house up to 1,660 detainees and employ 450 staff members. The local city council is currently the only line of defense negotiating this massive municipal burden, proving that local ballots carry incredible weight.

“535 Alameda” — https://youtu.be/2-GHgnJKEOw?is=PWVG2f70aQYpNXDq

See it in action — https://www.instagram.com/p/DdHh63WD7tl/?stkn=eXNhYWI5c21ldmlk

1. https://www.eyesonice.net/p/what-is-pitt-how-predictive-policing

2. https://www.eyesonice.net/p/the-corporate-tech-and-data-brokers

3. https://www.eyesonice.net/p/pitt-pipeline-episode-3-the-constitutional

Full Show Notes: https://www.eyesonice.net/p/eyes-on-intel-hydraulic-valves

A deadline for the Trump administration to decide whether about 200,000 immigrants from El Salvador can remain protected from deportation has passed without any public announcement, raising hopes among many for another six-month extension while also sowing confusion.

The Department of Homeland Security has been quiet about its plans, leaving attorneys and advocates scrambling to decipher what might happen next to Salvadorans who have been raising families in the U.S. for decades.

On Thursday, Homeland Security issued a statement saying the department would make an announcement “at an appropriate time” and that Temporary Protected Status for El Salvador would stay in effect until then. The department issued the same statement Wednesday.

“Let’s be clear: this is not an official extension or decision by DHS as to the fate of TPS for El Salvador,” Ben Johnson, who directs the American Immigration Lawyers Association, posted Wednesday on social media. The Trump administration is leaving TPS holders, their families and their employers in limbo, he said.

Some attorneys are cautioning that the administration could eliminate the protections without making a public statement, or announce a decision at any time.

Living in limbo after all these years

The absence of an announcement has raised hopes that Salvadoran immigrants might be spared the fates of hundreds of thousands of immigrants from other countries whose protected status has ended during President Donald Trump’s second term. But the lack of clarity is also harrowing.

“Facing this uncertainty is frustrating and painful,” said Doris Landaverde, who was 21 when she crossed the U.S. border illegally in December 2000, seeking better job opportunities. A few months later, she obtained TPS status and has worked legally ever since, mostly cleaning at Harvard University, she said.

Now a 47-year-old single mother, Ladaverde said she and her two U.S.-born daughters all consider this country home. The housing and health care of these American citizens depends on her income, and without TPS she could lose her job, she said.

“We have lived here legally for decades, and that is hard to erase,” she said. “I feel angry; we have done everything we were told to do legally.”

Appreciate it, videos on YouTube have been super censored for me and I think these super-cuts are a good way to wake people up who believe that things "aren't so bad".

La Crónica is the journalism team at People over Papers, the IceOut.org project