ANDREW LIMBONG, HOST:
Folkston, Georgia, is a small, rural town with a population of about 2,800 people, but that number will soon swell to more than 4,000 as immigrant detainees fill up an ICE detention center at the edge of town. An old prison is now expanding to house detainees as part of President Trump's ongoing effort to deport undocumented immigrants. The facility, which is run by the private prison corporation, the GEO Group, is on its way to being the largest in the country. And as NPR's Sergio Martínez-Beltrán reports, that's raising hope and concern about Folkston's future.
SERGIO MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN, BYLINE: Luke Harris (ph) and his friend Martin Rimes (ph) are cooling off in the shade of a train viewing platform.
(LAUGHTER)
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Trains are big here. Depending who you ask, 60 to 120 trains go through Folkston every day. Besides that, there's not much going on. Downtown has a couple of restaurants, but during the day, most of them are closed. And Harris says he sees a lot less unemployed people hanging out at McDonald's than he used to, partly because the ICE detention center has brought in so many new jobs.
LUKE HARRIS: I got a couple friends that work out there. I see them with the uniform on all the time.
MARTIN RIMES: At the prison. I got a nephew that works over there. He's a guard.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: These are high-paying jobs with benefits - a big deal for a struggling town that Harris describes this way...
HARRIS: Don't blink. You'll miss it.
(LAUGHTER)
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Folkston, maybe. But not the immigration processing center.
GLENN HULL: This is the largest ICE processing facility in the United States right here.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: At least it will be when it reaches capacity. That's Glenn Hull, the county administrator. We're standing on a dirt road on the side of the detention center. This is the closest we can get to it since ICE denied NPR's request for a tour. A grassy field surrounds this area. It's at least three city blocks. Shiny barbed wire surrounds the whole facility. A large water tower sits in the middle, with GEO in giant letters - the name of the private corporation that contracts with DHS and ICE to run this place. Hull drives us past a parking lot full of employee cars.
HULL: Obviously, you can see the economic development that it has here and the impact that it has on our community with all those jobs and potentially more.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Nearly 200 jobs so far and $260,000 to the county and more than $600,000 to the city of Folkston. GEO Group's contract with the federal government for the expansion of this site is of about $96 million over two years. County administrator Hull says GEO Group has been a great partner in the community, providing scholarships and sponsoring community events for a town where more than a third of the people live below the poverty line.
HULL: I hate to say it, but if it's not here, it's somewhere else. So you take advantage of the stuff that you have on your table. And I hate to simplify it to that because these are people's lives and families, but that's the reality of it.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: That's the reality in this town, where the detention center and a landfill are the biggest employers.
HULL: This is a huge business. Is it right? That's not for me to decide. But yeah, there is definitely a human element to this that touches my soul.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Recently, hundreds of South Korean workers detained here after a raid at a Georgia Hyundai battery factory described freezing temperatures, moldy mattresses and a foul-smelling drinking water, as well as racist gestures from guards. ICE and GEO Group did not respond to questions related to the allegations or about details of the facility's expansion.
As we drive by the side of the detention center, detainees wearing orange jumpsuits get close to the fence and start shouting at us.
UNKNOWN ICE DETAINEE #1: Help.
HULL: Help.
UNKNOWN ICE DETAINEE #2: They ain't treating us good out here.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Help - they ain't treating us good out here, detainees yell at us.
HULL: If I was detained behind barbed wire like that, I would be yelling help, too, to somebody coming down a dirt road. No doubt. I mean, that's the humanity side of this, right?
SAVANNAH POLLOCK: Most folks don't think of it in a moral issue here.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: That's 24-year-old Savannah Pollock, a medical student and one of the few local residents speaking out against the detention center. She was born and raised in Folkston. Her grandfather is a preacher at a Baptist church. A family member also serves on the county board.
POLLOCK: Well, you're in a poverty level where you just think about, how can I get money in my pocket? And that's where they bring up this, you know, we just don't have jobs conversation. But I say that this is just something you don't want to build your future upon - something that changes every four years.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: That's because the operation of this detention center is dependent on the political winds, and things can quickly change. And that whiplash is something this county has experienced in the past. A hospital that was a major employer suddenly closed, leading to unemployment, a health care desert and a blighted building. The same happened with lumber mills and titanium mines. Even the detention center was once a state prison that also closed, leaving more than 300 locals out of work. But administrator Hull is optimistic that having ICE here might give them leverage.
HULL: I won't put it in the words of quid pro quo, but we are supporting a major federal policy with this administration, and we need a hospital.
SAMANTHA HAMILTON: No matter what other, you know, fun community services GEO Group might someday provide, ultimately, they're going to prioritize what makes them money.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Immigration attorney Samantha Hamilton is with the group Shut Down Folkston ICE Processing Center.
HAMILTON: And what makes them money is locking people up.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Hamilton has represented detainees in Folkston.
HAMILTON: It is endemic to this capitalist system that holds these rural communities hostage to make them feel like there is nothing else that they can do but accept this "gift," quote-unquote, that is presented to them.
POLLOCK: I don't want to be known for that 'cause our reputation ain't that.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: That's resident Savannah Pollock again. She says she loves her town and does not want its reputation tarnished.
POLLOCK: You know, we're folks who - we'll travel across the state to go see you play football, you know? I got folks still cheering me on to go to medical schools. That's who these people are. And if they could, they would ride and die for this town if they had the pocket to do it. I don't think that's who we are - the ICE center ain't. And I hate that they're taking advantage of us and making us look as if that's us.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: But whether it's in Folkston or elsewhere, expanding or creating detention centers is key in President Trump's goal of deporting millions of undocumented immigrants - an unprecedented agenda that his administration says has already resulted in more than 400,000 deportations. Sergio Martínez-Beltrán, NPR News, Folkston, Georgia.
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