Immigration enforcement is supplying a long-standing economic market for prisoners

According to The Conversation (US), ICE and local law enforcement in West Virginia detained about six hundred immigrants in January twenty twenty six, placing many in already crowded county jails. The federal agency pays rural facilities a daily fee—roughly ninety dollars per detainee—to house them, reviving a century‑old pattern of states profiting from housing out‑of‑state prisoners. Scholars note that as criminal‑justice reforms shrink traditional prison populations, immigration detention has become the primary driver of growth in mass incarceration, with ICE bookings up fifty‑eight percent between twenty twenty five and twenty twenty six. So long as states view immigration detention as a revenue source, the historic model of prison‑based economic relief is likely to endure.

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