Jasmine Mooney, a Canadian citizen who most notably worked as an actor in the late 2000s and 2010s, was recently a detainee resident at CoreCivic’s Otay Mesa Detention Center (OMDC) in San Diego. According to an account she published on Medium, OMDC is one of a few facilities where Ms. Mooney was sent during her immigration process. 

In that account, Ms. Mooney inaccurately claimed that our company lobbies for stricter immigration policies and that we have a role in decisions like detainee transfers and length of stay. This is simply not true.  

Our immigration system is complex, and there’s a lot of misunderstanding about the important but small role we play in it. Here are the facts: 

• CoreCivic does not draft, lobby for, promote or in any way take a position on proposals, policies or legislation that determine the basis or duration of an individual’s detention. CoreCivic’s lobbying policy applies to our own employees, as well as external consultants who represent our company. Anyone who doesn’t comply with this policy will be terminated. 
• CoreCivic doesn’t have any role in determining immigration detainees’ releases or transfers. Those decisions are solely made by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). As Ms. Mooney’s own account suggests, the OMDC officer who told her she was leaving the facility was not aware of where she was going next. 
• CoreCivic doesn’t enforce immigration laws or arrest anyone who may be in violation of immigration laws. Our role is to operate detention centers. To do that, we are subject to strict oversight and contractually required to meet all of ICE’s detention standards.

We’re proud of our dedicated professionals who work to provide immigration detainees a variety of services from comprehensive medical and mental health care to faith-based support and access to legal resources while they prepare for the next steps in their immigration process. It’s important to set the record straight on the work we do to provide a safe, humane and appropriate environment for those entrusted to our care. 

For more information about CoreCivic’s role in the immigration system, click here.