Austin, TX -- A conflict broke out this afternoon at a Crowne Plaza Hotel job fair over Corrections Corporations of America (CCA)'s practice of housing people who are suspected of being undocumented in exchange for $1.7 billion a year in taxpayer dollars. Activists from GetEQUAL Texas confronted CCA job recruiters, citing the organization's record of lobbying for tougher laws on immigration and pushing for laws that create an atmosphere of racial profiling.
GetEQUAL TX questioned a CCA representative about the recorded practices of making money on the backs of undocumented people. When the representative refused to answer those questions, activists started yelling, "Immigrants for sale at the CCA!" to inform other job fair attendees.
"Billions of our tax dollars are given to CCA each year on the backs of our friends and neighbors," said Michael Diviesti, Texas State Lead Organizer for GetEQUAL. "They are making money off imprisoning human beings whose only crime was to want -- and to provide -- a better life for their families."
Advocates for immigration rights say the CCA is an immigrant money-making machine, which holds human beings in for-profit prisons -- many times shipping them from prison to prison to fluff their numbers and make more money.
"The buying and selling of human lives for monetary gain is absolutely unconscionable, inhumane, and blatantly un-American," said Tiffani Bishop, Texas District 7 Lead for GetEQUAL.
Founded in 2010, GetEQUAL is a national grassroots organization whose mission is to empower the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community and our allies to take bold action to demand full legal and social equality, and to hold accountable those who stand in the way. For more information go to www.getequal.org . You can also follow GetEQUAL on Facebook at www.facebook.com/getequal or on Twitter at www.twitter.com/getequal. GetEQUAL Texas is a state-based chapter of GetEQUAL, based in Texas and fighting for full equality for LGBT Texans. You can follow GetEQUAL Texas on Facebook at www.facebook.com/GetEQUAL.TX or on Twitter at www.twitter.com/getequal_tx.
