By By Matthew Hendley | Phoeinix New Times
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has removed its immigrant detainees from the Pinal County Jail, after the county and the federal government failed to come to an agreement over how much the county gets paid to house the detainees.
The end of this contract is a victory for human-rights groups that have complained about conditions at the jail for several years, and a loss for Pinal County, which is set to lose millions of dollars from the deal’s end.
The contract between ICE and Pinal County started in the mid-2000’s — before Sheriff Paul Babeu’s time as sheriff — when county leaders approved a plan to expand the jail, and housing these immigrant detainees to pay for it. The contract allowed for the county to house more than 600 detainees at a time.
