Thread by @MigrantFreedom

Our Co-Executive Director, @ChristinaFialho, explains why the @CityofAdelanto's attempt to ram the GEO Group's proposed expansion of immigration detention through the approval process is completely illegal, and what we plan to do about it.

desertsun.com/story/news/pol…

In February, we at Freedom for Immigrants, and our partners @IC4IJ, @the_ILRC and @ACLU_SoCal , appealed the city Planning Commission's decision to approve GEO's proposal to convert its 700-bed prison into an immigrant prison.

The City Council gave only six working days notice and did not take up the item until the middle of the night. And still, community *turned OUT*. Over 1600 people sent in comments, with over 90 people staying up to provide public testimony until 4 in the morning!

They tried everything to make it impossible for us to show up, and we came out in full force.

At 4 am, the City Council vote tied and could not come to a decision on the appeal. But still, the City Attorney argued that City should be able to proceed and approve GEO regardless.

But, as @ChristinaFialho explains, “Adelanto’s own municipal code explains that a Planning Commission’s decision is not a final decision if there is an appeal to the City Council, as there was in this case."

“When there is an appeal from a Planning Commission meeting to the City Council, the function of the City Council is to affirm, reverse or modify the Commission’s order,” Fialho said.

Because both of the City Council’s motions failed, it has not reversed or modified anything.

This is why the Planning Commission’s approval has no current legal effect and GEO Group cannot expand.

Also, the City is in clear violation of SB 29, the Dignity Not Detention Act, a California law that Freedom for Immigrants helped to draft and co-sponsor.

SB 29 requires at least two public hearings on a permit for a detention center and at least 180 days notice prior to approval, and the City has failed on these counts as well through repeatedly inaccessible hearings that seem by all accounts designed to thwart pubic input.

When reporter @rebeccaplevin asked the city attorney to explain the legal reasoning for claiming the permit is approved, Lloyd Pilchin simply said his office "cannot rush [their] work to meet a newspaper deadline."

Claiming the permit is approved with zero legal basis is wrong.

Our organization was proud to join a cease & desist letter Friday putting the City on notice that they'll face legal action if they approve the permit.

In the words of our co-founder, “No city should be so hellbent on appeasing the whims of a corporation that it flouts the law”