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Detainees of Immigration and Customs Enforcement have begun arriving at Miami Correctional Facility, located between Indianapolis and South Bend. Fifteen ICE detainees arrived at the facility on Wednesday and 25 more are expected to arrive Thursday.
An agreement between the state and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security allows ICE to hold up to 1,000 adult male detainees in the state prison. The listed rate per detainee is $291.24 each day with the state able to potentially receive more than $200 million over the course of the two-year agreement.
Last month the State Budget Committee approved nearly $16 million to upgrade the facility to hold the detainees. The money will go towards fencing, LED lights, office equipment, buses and temporary housing for additional staff.
More than 100 clergy, religious leaders and community members gathered outside the prison Monday to oppose the agreement.
The multi-faith group first gathered outside Miami Correctional Facility in August, when plans came out about using the facility to hold detainees.
Matt Landry is the senior pastor at Castleton United Methodist Church in Indianapolis.
"I think the opportunity to be together, to pray with many different denominations, but also with interfaith partners, recognizing that we're all in this together, that this is not just one church, one nation, one faith group, but this is all of us together calling for transparency, for humane treatment of brothers and sisters in our country who might be strangers or immigrants," Landry said.
The September vigil was organized by the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis and Northern Indiana. It included scripture readings, speeches and prayers.
Rev. Chris Lantz attended the August and September vigils. He said the most recent vigil had an urgent tone.
"The speeches were a little more pointed, the praying was a bit more intense, and so, yeah, it was our, our level sort of jumped a notch knowing that this week there were going to be detainees housed there," Lantz said.
The group plans to hold another vigil on the last Monday of October. Lantz said they hope to not only speak to government leaders but provide pastoral care to people detained by ICE at the facility.
"Now we’ll be speaking quite literally to the people who are detained there, that they are not alone, that we see them, we know that they’re there, and that we stand with them for their fight for justice," Lantz said.
Contact WFYI All Things Considered newscaster and reporter Samantha Horton at shorton@wfyi.org or on Signal at SamHorton.05.
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