Bloomberg Law: Immigration Facility Contractors Warn on California Tax Proposal

The bill (A.B. 1633) from Assemblymember Matt Haney (D) would levy a 50% tax on gross receipts from contracts to operate private immigration detention facilities in California. There are two companies that do such work in the state, according to the bill sponsor’s office: CoreCivic Inc. and the GEO Group Inc.

Haney, the bill sponsor, said he wants companies operating private immigration detention facilities to “pay attention.”

“The point of this bill is to send a message to them that they’re going to have to pay for the harm and suffering they’re causing or they should consider no longer doing business here,” he said. “The fact that they are alerting their investors to the risk of expanding in California is exactly the point.”

“This bill, which will certainly face legal challenges for its unconstitutionality, is nothing more than a veiled attempt to ban contractor-operated immigration processing facilities in the state to advance a broader political agenda aimed at undermining the federal government’s immigration enforcement policies,” Wilkes said in a statement.