Protesters block access to private prison company’s South Florida headquarters
At least nine protesters were arrested during a protest Tuesday at Geo Group headquarters — a Florida-based private prison company that operates facilities nationwide.
The Geo Group, which also runs adult detention centers for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is based in Boca Raton. On Tuesday morning, protesters blocked the entrances to the company’s parking garage entrance as well as the doorways to “physically impede “business as usual.”
A banner in the parking garage said: “This facility is on lockdown.”
“We will not allow our government to separate innocent families. We will not allow private companies to profit off the suffering of children,” the protesters said in an emailed statement. “We will not allow their workers to sit undisturbed in air-conditioned offices while people are deprived of their humanity.”
Boca Raton police, who arrested protest organizer Carlos Valnera Naranjo while he yelled into a megaphone, did not immediately respond to phone calls from the Miami Herald. Protesters said he was detained after police told them Naranjo violated a city amplified sound ordinance. Eight other protesters were also arrested.
Geo Group employees were not able to enter the building. The contractor runs one ICE detention center in Florida, the Broward Transitional Center in Miramar.
A Geo Group spokesman issued this statement: “The dishonest narrative and lies that are being spread about the services our company provides is based on the same false rhetoric that has led to the endangerment of our employees, of government employees, and the public. The safety of our employees is our top priority, and any violence, vandalism, or destruction of property at any of our facilities and offices will not be tolerated.”
Earlier this year, banking giants Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and others announced they would sever ties with the private prison industry — specifically GEO Group and CoreCivic, the largest operators of private prisons and detention centers in the country — because it was a “risk” to their business following national outrage over private companies profiting off the detainment of adults and children.
“Public resistance to the use of public-private partnerships for correctional, detention and community-based facilities could result in our inability to obtain new contracts or the loss of existing contracts, impact our ability to obtain or refinance debt financing or enter into commercial arrangements, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations,” GEO Group said at the time, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
A host of both big and small banks still provide more than $2.6 billion in credit to the industry, according to a recent report released by three research watchdog groups: In The Public Interest, Public Accountability Initiative and the Center for Popular Democracy.
This story was originally published December 3, 2019 at 12:47 PM.
