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Speakers say private prisons profit from immigrants

"A corporation is profiting off of the incarceration of immigrants," said Tracy Thottam, a communication sciences and disorders graduate student and member of the Asian American Relations Group, which co-sponsored the presentation with the Campus Greens. "They can claim that they are fighting the war on terrorism and that they are helping their country, but they are really helping their business."

Asra Syed, a journalism junior and a member of the Asian American Relations Group, said many people of Arab and South Asian descent are being held in U.S. prisons for minor visa violations.

"If more people knew these people were being held and their civil liberties were being taken away, it might change the way they view government activity," Syed said.

Syed said detainees are harshly punished for visa violations and often not informed of their charges.

"They are being held under suspicious circumstances," Syed said. "Not everyone gets detained for months on end for violating their visa."

Pranis and Lor also presented the message that students in the United States should tell their universities to stop giving bond business to Lehman Brothers, an institutional-investment bank, until the company stops funding private prisons.

In the spring of 2001, UT students pressured administration officials to stop business with Sodexho Marriott, the company that provides athletic concessions for the University, until the company sold their stock in the Corrections Corporation of America.

Pranis said the University was the last higher education institution to put pressure on Sodexho Marriott before the company severed ties with the Corrections Corporation of America.

Bob Libal, a communication studies senior and a member of the Campus Greens, said the presentation marked the start of a campaign to pressure UT System officials to refuse to do business with Lehman Brothers if they are helping fund private prisons, similar to the campaign against Sodexho Marriott.