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Current and former detainees, including illegal immigrants, are suing the countrys second largest private prison company, allegingthe for-profit institution forced them to work for extremely low wages or nothing at all.

A federal judge ruled Monday that inmates at a detention center in Colorado can participate in a class-action lawsuit against the private corrections company,GEO group. The prison complexholds illegal immigrants slated for deportation.

This is the first lawsuit of its kind in the history of the United States, Andrew Free, one of the plaintiffs attorneys told The Daily Beast. This is the first time that a private prison company has ever been accused of forced labor, and this is the first time that a judge has ever found that the claims can go forward under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and the bans in federal law on forced labor.

Judge John Kane assigned theattorneys to legally represent all detainees held at the Aurora, Colo. center since Oct. 22, 2004, which could equal nearly 60,000 people, according to The Daily Beast.

Illegal immigrant detainees said if they refused to work, they would be threatened with solitary confinement.

GEOs Aurora facility is being run on the backs of detainees, with GEOs profits flowing from abusing this cheap detainee labor, Alexander Hood told The Daily Beast.

But GEO Group refutes theseaccusations, saying they comply with the law.

The volunteer work program at immigration facilities as well as the wage rates and standards associated with the program are set by the Federal government, said Pablo Paez, a spokesperson for the company, according toThe Daily Beast. Our facilities, including the Aurora, Colo. Facility, are highly rated and provide high-quality services in safe, secure, and humane residential environments pursuant to the Federal Governments national standards.

The judges decision to permit the lawsuit could have implications for the Trump administrations immigration enforcement strategy. Approximately 65 percent of Department of Homeland Security detainees were held in privately run facilities, according to USA Today. And if more lawsuits in the future are authorized based on precedent, then immigrant detention could potentially require more funding, whether privately or publicly.

GEO Group has a history with President Donald Trump, having donated $250,000 for his inauguration ceremony, according to USA Today. (RELATED: Zuckerberg-Led Immigration Group Opposed Trump, Then Gave Him $5,000)

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Illegal Immigrants Sue Private Prison For 'Forced Labor' | The Daily ... - Daily Caller

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Mexico is not happy that President Trump appears to be serious about building a border wall and halting the cross-border human traffic. The improvements in border security promised in the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 as a trade-off for the general amnesty never happened, and illegal border crossings have trended upwards again after a brief decline connected to the 2008-10 recession. Apprehensions of illegal border jumpers on the southwest border have increased every year but one since 2010, and increased 23 percent from 2015 to 2016.

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Because of the relative ease of crossing the border and Mexicos liberal definition of Mexican citizenship, we have the situation recently described by author Ann Coulter, who discovered that persons of Mexican origin now residing in the United States legal and illegal are equal in number to over 25 percent of the 130 million population of Mexico.

The Pew Hispanic Center says there were 33.7 million Americans of Mexican descent in the United States in 2012, and that figure is based in part on the official Census figure of 11.3 million illegal aliens, over 60 percent of whom are from Mexico. If you believe as I do that the illegal alien population of the U.S. is over 25 million, not 11.3 million, then the percentage of Mexican nationals now residing in the U.S. persons recognized as Mexican citizens under the Mexican Constitution is considerably above 25 percent.

Few Americans are aware that in 2005, in recognition of the growing importance of remittances to the Mexican economy and thus the growing importance of maintaining a close connection with the millions of Mexicans who have moved north, the Mexican constitution was amended to bestow voting rights in presidential elections for Mexicans living abroad. In 2012, over eleven million Mexicans living in the United States voted in the Mexican presidential election.

Let me put this in stark economic terms: Mexicos national income grows in direct proportion to the size of the illegal Mexican population inside the United States. Does that help explain the Mexican fixation on U.S. politics? Mexicos most profitable export to the U.S. is not oil or avocados or automobile parts, it is people.

Mexicans living and working in theU.S. send home over $20 billion annually in cash remittances more than Mexico earns in foreign currency from tourism or any export commodity.

In 1979, Mexico received only $177,000 (U.S. Dollars) in remittances; in 2016 it was $26.1 BILLION over 90 percent of it from persons living in the United States. (See here for a GAO report on remittances to Mexico from the U.S. and here for the World Bank reports for total remittances received by Mexico.)

You dont believe government data? Even the Clinton News Network confirms it: this recent CNN report says Mexico relies more on remittance income than the sale of oil or tourism.

To guarantee those remittance dollars keep flowing north to south, Mexico must keep exporting its citizens south to north. Does anyone think Mexico will give up that lucrative income graciously?Do you think Mexican politicians will welcome an interruption of either of those two flows either people going north or dollars coming south?

As a Congressman, back in 2001, I visited Mexico along with two of my colleagues and met with several high government officials in the Mexican capital. One of those officials was Juan Hernandez, a dual citizen with a home in Texas, who at that time was the head of a cabinet department. That department had the name,Ministry for Mexicans Living Abroad, but it has since been reorganized and given a lower public profile as the Institute for Mexicans Abroad, a government-funded division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

I asked Seor Hernandez, what exactly do you do here? He was quite candid and informative and not the least bit apologetic. Hernandezs job was to direct and coordinate a large collection of enterprises of transport and educational activities aimed at assisting and encouraging Mexicans in physically moving north across Mexico and entering the United States.

I was struck by both the grandiosity and bravura of that official Mexican government operationdirected by a cabinet official. Somewhat shocked by his candid admissions, I asked Hernandez, hey, arent you embarrassed by violating the sovereignty of a neighboring country? His reply was delivered calmly and with a smile. I remember his words clearly: Really, congressman, we dont have two countries here, its just a region.

I also asked Hernandez, why does the Mexican government work so hard to maintain contact with Mexicans even after they become naturalized citizens of the United States? He told me, its because they tend to stop sending money home after they assimilate. Assimilation, he believed, was a problem: if Mexicans stopped being Mexicans first, and Americans second, that is very bad for Mexico.

Juan Hernandez, as I said, is a dual citizen of Mexico and the United States, and he has been very involved in U.S. politics. In 2008, working from his Texas home, he was named as presidential candidate John McCains chief of Outreach to Hispanic Americans.

You can makeofthat connection with John McCain what you will; maybe the guy just needed a job. But as for myself, I would worry if my candidate were endorsed by the Juan Hernandez characters of the world, and I am delighted that Seor Juan Hernandez is apoplectic over the plans announced by President Trump.

What lies ahead for U.S.-Mexican relations? Your guess is as good as mine, but if Trump persists in his plans, Mexican bluster and outrage will be replaced by a more pragmatic accommodation. The border will continue to be a point of conflict, but Mexico may come to realize that the end of the remittance cornucopia was inevitable.

Mexico can grow its own economy and create millions of jobs for its people by abandoning its socialist dogmas and state-owned enterprises. If that happens, someday soon Mexican politicians will see the bitter medicine administered by Trump as a blessing in disguise.

Polls of newly-arrived Mexicans who entered our country illegally reveal that the large majority of them do not intend to stay forever. Typically, uponarrival, they plan to get a job, send money home, and then return home to Mexico and enjoy a better life than what they left.

Mexicans naturally retain a love of thecountryof their birthand that love of country is certainly not a bad thing if you think of it as your true home. If ten million Mexicans now in the United States became optimistic about Mexicos future and returned home to fight corruption, build a better educational system and a stronger economy, that, too, would not be a bad thing.

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Tancredo: Illegal Immigration Props Up Mexico's Dysfunctional State - Breitbart News

Members of the group Veterans Assisting Veterans joined "Fox & Friends" Monday to discuss their opposition to the immigration policies of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and other lawmakers.

The Massachusetts-based group is demanding that the interests of veterans are placed before those of undocumented immigrants.

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"There's hundreds of veterans dying every day. ... Why don't we address those problems first, and then we'll worry about other people coming into our country," said Dennis Moschella, the group's president.

The group would like to see the veterans be supported first, since they are the ones providing the lawmakers the opportunity to speak on these immigration issues by serving their country.

The group's spokesman John MacDonald said Veterans Assisting Veterans is by no means anti-immigration and in fact salutes the countless immigrants who have fought for America.

"Elizabeth Warren and people like her seem to have a very hard time understanding the difference between legal and illegal. ... It seems to be the fact that she's more interested in creating political theater than she is in helping Americans," MacDonald said.

Watch the full interview above. Plus, be sure to catch Judge Jeanine Pirro's powerful opening statement on police officers protecting undocumented immigrants in so-called sanctuary cities.

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Veterans Group Blasts Sen. Warren for Support of Undocumented ... - Fox News Insider

Mexican-born American journalist Jorge Ramos claimed that illegal immigrants come to the U.S. because they want to benefit our lives during an interview Friday evening with Chris Wallace on Fox News The OReilly Factor.

Wallace, who was filling in for host Bill OReilly, pressed Ramos about his support for blanket amnesty for the millions of illegal immigrants residing in the U.S. Ramos, a Univision anchor, took issue with President Donald Trumps strict stance of clamping down on illegal immigration, as well as the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials recent deportation of hundreds of mostly criminal aliens. Because a small numberof the deportees werent criminal aliens, Ramos balked at the mass deportation.

They are coming here, again, not because they want to go to Disneyland or because they want to kill Americans. They are here to benefit our lives.

They are here because of us, Ramos told Wallace. They are coming here, again, not because they want to go to Disneyland or because they want to kill Americans. They are here to benefit our lives. I mean, theyre here to millions of Americans benefit from their work.

Ramos bizarre defense of immigrants desires to enter and reside in the U.S. illegally seemed to attribute an unrealistic sense of altruism to their decision-making process.

The reason they are here, Chris, is because of us. So we have to be responsible for that, Ramos claimed. It is not simply that they come here and they just wanted to come here and make money. Yeah, I mean, they want to do that. They want to better their lives. But also they are here to help us. So we are partly responsible for that and I think we are partly responsible for finding a solution.

When Wallace pressed Ramos about the criminality of theillegal aliens being prioritized for deportation, Ramos insisted that he did not condone violent criminal aliens. Nevertheless, the Univision anchor attempted to justify some of non-violent criminal actions illegal aliens take part in once theyve entered the country.Although he admitted that it is a crime when illegal aliens get a false social security card, papers, or drivers license that allow them to receive government benefits, Ramos seemed to try to justify such behavior.

Lets not be naive Many of them use fake IDs. Many of them use fake drivers licenses. Why? Because they are working for us, Ramos insisted. They come here because they want to work. They harvest the food that we eat. They build our homes. And they dont want to get in trouble with the police.

Ramos continued his unusual defense of illegal entry into the U.S. by attempting to pin part of the blame on the 45th president.

"The problem, Chris, is that President Trump is criminalizing the immigrants in this country," Ramos insisted.

Ramos' defense came the same day that Trump reinforced his commitment to cracking down on illegal immigration during a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

"You see what's happening at the border. All of a sudden for the first time, we're getting gang members out. We're getting drug lords out. We're getting really bad dudes out of this country, and at a rate that nobody's ever seen before," Trump said. "We are getting bad people out of this country. Whether it's drugs or murder, we are getting bad people out and I said it from Day One. Basically, all I've done is keep my promise."

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Jorge Ramos: Illegal Immigrants Come 'To Help Us' | LifeZette - LifeZette

Eddie C. Quinn - Jacksonville

To the editor:

Gravy Train term used to refer to a situation in which someone can make a lot of money for very little effort.

E-Verify is an internet-based system that allows employers to determine whether a job applicant is entitled to work in the United States.

The blame for illegal aliens coming into, and remaining within, this country rests more with our own government than it does with the illegal aliens. Can you really blame illegal aliens for wanting to get on the government gravy train? The liberal government has been handing out so-called free benefits for decades. Hopefully, that will soon change. There is more incentive for the illegal alien to come to and remain within this country, than for illegal aliens to go back to, or remain within, their own country.

For decades, Congress has had, and continues to have, a problem figuring out how to end the mass illegal alien situation. To me, and many others, it is not only simple, but logical: Remove all the incentives for individuals to enter or remain within this country illegally! Reward those who abide by our laws, punish those that dont!

Why do the vast majority of illegal aliens come to this country? Jobs and government handouts. Remove these two incentives and illegal aliens will have less incentive to come to or remain within this country. Fewer illegal aliens would mean fewer government employees to distribute handouts, lower taxes and Border Patrol and ICE agents could focus on those intent upon doing this country and its citizens harm: terrorists, drug dealers and other criminal elements.

How to reduce illegal aliens? First, hold all employers (individuals and companies) legally and fiscally responsible for ensuring that prospective employees are legally eligible to work in this country before they hire the individual. The government developed E-Verify to assist employers in this process. If a prospective employer fails to make adequate job eligibility verification efforts, punish the employer and deport the illegal alien as both are breaking the law.

Second, the various levels of government provide numerous benefits to illegal aliens: shelter, food, clothing, medical care, education, disposable income and a host of other benefits. Where is it written that we should take better care of illegal aliens than our own citizens? Nowhere! Why are illegal aliens entitled to benefits often not even available to our own citizens particularly veterans? Answer: Leftists see illegal aliens as potential Democrat Party voters.

Conservatives see illegal aliens for what many of them are: an increased tax burden and job destroyer. Our various government entities should immediately terminate all benefits for illegal aliens. Without these benefits provided by our welfare state, illegal aliens would be far less inclined to illegally enter or remain within this country.

The upside for those legally in this country: lower taxes and the billions of dollars that are dispensed to support illegal aliens could then be shifted to help our own needy citizens.

Charity should begin at home. If there is a surplus, then spread outwards!

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What is so difficult about handling illegal immigration? - Jacksonville Daily News