“BURIALS ARE CHEAPER THAN DEPORTATIONS”: VIRUS UNLEASHES TERROR IN A TROUBLED ICE DETENTION CENTER

Etowah County has a unique role in ICE’s architecture of detention and deportation. For more than two decades, the agency has provided the local sheriff’s department with a steady stream of funds for housing hundreds of immigrant detainees at a time. “The contract between Etowah County and ICE has one of the lowest per diem rates of any of these intergovernmental service agreements around the country,” Vosburgh explained. Capitalizing on the low rates, ICE has turned Etowah into a destination for people who are in the system long-term — including people who have longstanding roots in the country and continue to fight their cases, and stateless people whose home countries are so racked with civil strife that they cannot accept deportations. In Vosburgh’s words, “It’s ICE’s warehouse for prolonged detainees.”