The North Lake Correctional Facility in Baldwin recently reopened as a detention center for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The facility previously closed in 2022 after the Biden administration terminated federal contracts with private, for-profit prison facilities. Originally opened in 1999, it has closed and reopened multiple times and is set to become the largest facility of its kind in the Midwest.

This past Saturday and today, many locals expressed their frustration and disappointment by protesting the facility’s reopening for ICE purposes. Saturday’s protest took place along M-37, while Monday’s occurred at the Baldwin Service Center during a local hiring fair. Upon observation, one confirmed protestor was detained by Lake County law enforcement at the hiring party on Monday.

^{Image of a protestor being detained at the Michigan Works! hiring party on Monday morning in Baldwin.}

The projected annual revenue for operations is $70 million. Critics of The GEO Group, which now operates the detention center, have raised concerns about poor working conditions and detainee hunger strikes.

“We expect that our company-owned North Lake Facility in Michigan will play an important role in helping meet the need for increased federal immigration processing center bedspace,” GEO Group Executive Chairman George Zoley said in a statement. “We are proud of our 40-year public-private partnership with ICE, and we stand ready to continue to help the federal government meet its expanded immigration enforcement priorities.”

For more information about the group, visit https://www.geogroup.com/.