Police arrested several protesters who blocked the entrance to the headquarters of the prison operator, CoreCivic, saying that their actions were to defend families and insist that private prisons be closed down, according to WTVF-TV. The protestors erected tents, blocked several entrances, and changed the flag of Tennessee to one with the message ‘No borders’.
CoreCivic, based in Nashville, is one of the biggest private prison firms in the US, and has contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The group, known as No Exceptions Prison Collective, which wants to abolish private prisons, organized the protest. Washington’s Migration Policy Institute claims that thousands of undocumented immigrants are languishing in private prisons and that firms, such as CoreCivic, make sizeable profits every year by keeping them there.
The protestors began blocking entrances before the arrival of employees on Monday morning. They hung a banner at an entrance across the top of the building, with the message ‘Profit from pain is inhumane’. WTVF-TV reported that several of the demonstrators also handcuffed themselves to some 55-gallon drums.
CoreCivic later gave a statement to WKRN, claiming that the activists had distorted its role in immigration detention. It added that it is not responsible for the arrest of immigrants or the enforcement of immigration law and has no say in whether people are detained or released.