Hun­dreds of thou­sands of immi­grants are being kept (and forced to work) in immi­grant deten­tion cen­ters for cross­ing a bor­der every year. Along with the nec­es­sary ques­tion of Who Ben­e­fits? (large­ly pri­vate cor­po­ra­tions), this rais­es oth­er ques­tions: Which is the crime? Cross­ing a bor­der? Or keep­ing immi­grants cap­tive for mon­ey? This is not new in the age of Trump. Oba­ma (who deport­ed more peo­ple than all oth­er pres­i­dents of the cen­tu­ry before him, com­bined) detained large num­bers of fam­i­lies in prison set­ting the stage for Trump’s poli­cies today. For more on this stage set­ting, check out Cru­el and immoral: Amer­i­ca must close the doors of its immi­gra­tion pris­ons by C.C. Gar­cia Her­nan­dez, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/17/family-separation-family-detention-immigration. If you would like to see stats on immi­grants in deten­tion cen­ters check out Free­dom for Immi­grants site: https://www.freedomforimmigrants.org/detention-statistics/