In September 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began using Golden State Annex, a former state prison located in McFarland, California as an expansion of the Mesa Verde Detention Facility.
Centro Legal de la Raza and the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice have analyzed the impact on communities and enforcement trends of this expansion from September, 2020 to the end of March, 2021.
A prominent trend identified in this report is that former residents from the city of Los Angeles, California, are more likely to be incarcerated at the facility than any other city or county identified, as seen in the interactive map below:
<a href='#'><img alt='Communities Impacted by the Golden State Annex in the U.S. by County(120 Former Residents) ' src='https://public.tableau.com/static/images/Go/GoldenStateAnnex-ImpactedCommunitiesbyCounty/CountyU_S_/1_rss.png' style='border: none' /></a>
Nearly 80% of immigration arrests identified occurred at California prisons or county jails. Continued collaboration between local and state authorities with ICE ensured that transfers to immigration detention continue despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. As seen on the map below, 5 out-of-state transfers to Golden State Annex have occurred, a concerning trend that if continued makes California a supporter of anti-immigrant policies and enforcement operations in other states.
<a href='#'><img alt='Arrests and Transfers ' src='https://public.tableau.com/static/images/Go/GoldenStateAnnex-ImigrationArrestsandTransfers/ArrestsandTransfers/1_rss.png' style='border: none' /></a>