- Pacific
WASHINGTON — The military contractor that built the prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and jails throughout Iraq has been tapped to construct facilities in the United States to be used in the event of "an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S."
The contract has sparked wide speculation that massive prisons are going to be built to detain illegal immigrants or even U.S citizens, fears that government officials say are unfounded.
“Our national immigration reform debate is going on real hot and heavy and there are conspiracy theories out there that we are building concentration camps,” said Clay Church, spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. “This contract has nothing to do with that whatsoever.”
The contract, awarded in January to Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR), a subsidiary of defense contractor Halliburton Co., pays the company to establish and provide support for “temporary detention and processing capabilities to augment existing ICE (Immigration Customs Enforcement) Detention and Removal Operations (DRO) Program facilities in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs,” according to a Halliburton press release. (Fox News, 6.07.2006) http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,198456,00.html
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