Leaders of a cash-strapped California farm town, home to many migrants in the country illegally, have voted to convert two privately run state prisons into immigration detention centers, just two months after public opposition appeared to have derailed the proposal.
After a three-hour virtual meeting over Zoom on Thursday night, the City Council of McFarland voted 4-0 in favor of a plan by the GEO Group, which has been operating the prisons, to repurpose them to detain up to 1,400 migrants. One council member recused himself due to a conflict of interest.
