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Local jails can earn a lot of money for locking up people taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. More than 100 jails across the country have done this in President Trump's second term. Morgan Watkins with the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting looks at how the arrangement works in her state.
MIKE LEWIS: Control, open 202 - two, zero, two.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOOR CLICKING)
MORGAN WATKINS, BYLINE: Mike Lewis walks down the hallway in the jail he runs in rural Hopkins County, Kentucky. The lights are dim. The walls are gray. He stops at a pair of large windows. On the other side, over a dozen detainees in striped uniforms, mostly all Hispanic, sit around.
LEWIS: Watching TV and playing cards and waiting for dinner to be served. Like I said, we usually feed them right at 12 o'clock. So about five or 10 minutes, trays will be rolling back.
WATKINS: These men are immigrants. They were arrested by ICE because they were in the country illegally and sent to Lewis' jail. Many will probably be deported.
LEWIS: They're the easiest inmates in the building to deal with. Their cells are always the cleanest. They hardly ever fight amongst themselves. They are hardly ever disrespectful to our staff.
WATKINS: The federal government pays a fee for each day a jail holds someone for ICE. The amount is negotiated with each facility and varies widely. In Kentucky, public records show some jails getting paid between $45 and $100 per person a day. Lewis says the arrangement can offset expenses, fill empty beds and keep the jail busy enough that they don't have to lay off staff.
LEWIS: Most all jails cost their local county taxpayers a lot of money. The goal is to cost as little as possible. That's my goal for the county.
WATKINS: ICE used local jails under past presidents, too. But the Trump administration in particular has sought more space to incarcerate immigrants because it has been arresting a lot more of them. ICE says it's a top priority to ensure the well-being of people in its custody. And the agency says that it has high standards for detention. However, recent lawsuits allege people experienced inhumane conditions and inadequate care while in ICE custody. People in some communities are fighting their local jail's decision to work with ICE. Alex LeBlanc leads a group of citizens in Oldham County, Kentucky. They've protested at county meetings and outside the jail.
ALEX LEBLANC: It's sanctioned human trafficking by the American government, and they're funding it, and they're incentivizing it. And that's pretty gross.
WATKINS: LeBlanc and other residents say their local elected officials shouldn't put revenue over people, people like Leyla Navarrete. She's in her late 20s, from Nicaragua and now lives in Indiana. Federal agents arrested Navarrete last year when she arrived for an appointment at an immigration office in Indianapolis.
LEYLA NAVARRETE: (Through interpreter) So I was in shock. I couldn't believe. It was like a dream. It was very - I couldn't believe. It was a surprise. And I was - all the time was thinking, like, what I did wrong?
WATKINS: ICE sent Navarrete to Kentucky's Grayson County Detention Center. She was pregnant, in her second trimester. She said she felt like a criminal during a checkup when jail staff took her to a local doctor.
NAVARRETE: (Through interpreter) At the appointment, I started crying and crying because it was my first baby and I wanted the dad to be there, my husband. The doctor then touched my shoulder and said that everything would be fine. And I felt that there was still some humane people, good people.
WATKINS: Navarrete was locked up for more than three months before a federal judge ordered her release in November. The jail was able to charge the U.S. government for every day that she was in there. Data show ICE has sent more than 6,000 immigrants just to Kentucky jails under Trump. Four of those jails billed ICE for over $2 million each so far.
For NPR News, I'm Morgan Watkins in Louisville.
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