FICPFM and Homies Unidos Condemn Plan to Convert Former Japanese Internment Site into ICE Detention Center
The Formerly Incarcerated, Convicted People and Families Movement (FICPFM) and Homies Unidos denounce the plan to transform a former U.S. Army base in Texas—once used to intern Japanese American families during World War II—into an immigration detention center.
“As formerly incarcerated and convicted people, we know the violence of cages firsthand,” said David Ayala, Executive Director of FICPFM. “ICE is just another arm of the prison system—tearing families apart, targeting Black, Brown, and poor communities, and profiting from our pain.”
“We now must stand in solidarity with our immigrant community, who continues to be mass incarcerated in inhumane conditions without due process,” said Alex Sanchez, Executive Director of Homies Unidos. “It is now time to stop the continued profiting of our incarcerated people by public and private prisons like Geo Group and CoreCivic, who in 2022 made a combined profit of $1.5 billion and are expected to make $4.3 billion in profits in 2025.”
FICPFM and its Quest for Democracy network have always stood against cages in all their forms. From prisons and jails to immigration detention, these systems strip people of their humanity, separate families, and deny entire communities the right to belong. Incarceration has never brought safety—only trauma and division.
For decades, directly impacted people have organized to restore voting rights, dismantle barriers to housing and employment, and expand democracy. That same commitment to enfranchisement and justice compels opposition to ICE detention today.
“We will resist this expansion of ICE detention and honor the asylum process that protects immigrants who will be tortured if deported,” added Sanchez. “Just as communities organized to end Japanese internment and resisted Operation Wetback, we must resist again. For immigrants, a felony conviction becomes a life sentence—they are permanently excluded, unable to reunify with family or participate fully in society.”
The organizations call on allies, elected officials, and all communities of conscience to reject the use of internment sites for new cages and to invest instead in justice, dignity, and freedom.
About FICPFM
The Formerly Incarcerated, Convicted People and Families Movement (FICPFM) is a national network of more than 50 civil and human rights organizations led by people with conviction histories and their families. Committed to ending mass incarceration and expanding democracy, FICPFM organizes, educates, and builds power in directly impacted communities across the United States.
About Homies Unidos
Homies Unidos’ mission is to promote peace and reduce violence through collaboration in immigrant and system-impacted communities in Los Angeles and their countries of origin by empowering new immigrant leaders to become advocates for justice and equality. Its vision is a just and peaceful society that promotes human rights, equality, and the empowerment of criminalized people within immigrant communities.
Visit ficpfm.org and homiesunidos.org for more information.