Adelanto, CA -- Immigrant rights advocates are denouncing the Adelanto City Council’s decision late last night to remove Planning Commission Vice-Chair JayShawn Johnson from his post. Last week, Johnson was the only member of the Commission to oppose a controversial proposal by multi-billion dollar prison corporation GEO to expand its immigration detention capacity in the city. The expansion has been widely slammed as an attempt to undercut California’s AB 32, which bans for-profit prisons and detention centers in the state.

In passionate remarks at last week’s hearing, Johnson called out the corporation’s pervasive influence on local politics, lamenting that he felt like “a pawn in a larger scheme, wherein which I have likely only scratched the surface.” News reports have documented GEO’s questionable coordination with city officials, despite CEO George Zoley’s testimony to the contrary.

The following is a statement from the Dignity not Detention coalition, including ACLU of Southern California, California Immigrant Youth Justice Alliance, Detention Watch Network, Freedom for Immigrants, Immigrant Defense Advocates, Immigrant Defense Project, Immigrant Legal Resource Center, Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice, Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity, Pangea Legal Services, Resilience Orange County, and The LGBTQ Center Oc.

We condemn the council’s crude attempt to censor a courageous voice for the truth. JayShawn Johnson’s moral clarity and principled stance should be an inspiration to people across the country.

Yet this gross act of retaliation will only strengthen the resolve of community members who are striving day in and day out to build a better Adelanto.

To move forward, we must uncover the truth. The full extent of GEO Group’s scheme to buy influence in Adelanto and expand an operation which is as abusive as it is deadly must be exposed. And we must build a world where we put people over profit.

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