U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement last year sought proposals for where to build a new detention facility somewhere in the Salt Lake City area — or at least within a 180-mile ground trip from its field office and immigration court there.
None of the three proposals received are in Utah, and they’re not easy commutes: 83 miles away in Evanston, Wyo.; 481 miles away in Pahrump, Nev.; and 522 miles away in Aurora, Colo. Different private prison companies are proposing each of them.
That may make it difficult for the Utah families of criminal aliens or other immigration violators to visit them, or for their local attorneys to represent them.