In Baldwin...
... residents have watched the facility open and close a number of times over the years. Our story.
In a written statement, ICE said it plans to publish the number of detainees held there on Thursday when it issues its next biweekly detainee count.
North Lake is owned by GEO Group, a private prison company. It was a federal prison until its closing in 2022. It has opened and closed many times since its original construction as a juvenile detention center in 1999.
Its 1,800-bed capacity makes it one of the largest ICE detention centers in the country.
The federal government’s push for more immigration detention has benefitted GEO, which announced last week that it will also reopening an 1,900-bed facility in Georgia.
GEO also said a legal ruling will allow it to fill another 1,900-bed detention center in Los Angeles.
In a press release Tuesday, the group No Detention Centers in Michigan, which has long been involved in organizing against North Lake, denounced the re-opening.
“The perverse financial incentives are glaring as GEO Group stands to generate in excess of $70 million in annualized revenue from North Lake, at the expense of people’s lives and a small community that has been forced to rely on a carceral economy," said Setareh Ghandehari, Advocacy Director of Detention Watch Network, in the release.
A demonstration organized by the Manistee Democratic Party against the detention center is planned for Saturday near the facility.
