It's 6 o'clock and you are listening to All Things Considered. In a class of its own when it was running as an immigration detention facility locking up immigrants is a big business to go to a small town in south Texas where a new detention center is opening for Thursday August 2nd this is All Things Considered from n.p.r. News. I'm not the Chang And I'm Audie Cornish top national security officials continue sounding the alarm about the risk of Russian interference in u.s. Elections we continue to see her basic message campaign by Russia to try to weaken. The United States also we'll get the latest on the election in Zimbabwe where protests turned violent after the voting and Democrats try uniting the ideological poles of their party with a single election message American people are watching they expect us to be a differently and work together to produce results that improve their lives now news. Live from n.p.r. News in Washington I'm Jack Speer battle royale broke out late today over a Republican plan the Democrats say skirts provisions of the Presidential Records Act in order to speed confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the premier court by early October N.P.R.'s Nina Totenberg has more the National Archives has notified the Senate Judiciary Committee that it will be October before he's able to finish even part of its review of Cavanagh's records while he served in the George w. Bush White House while Republican leaders said they still plan to go ahead with September hearings on the Cavanagh nomination Democrats accuse the g.o.p. Of a scheme to get around the presidential records law a law that requires career archivist to screen documents for privileged or classified material instead under the current plan private lawyers representing President Bush will do the screening and some of those lawyers also represent top current and former Trump administration officials in the Russian investigation Nina Totenberg n.p.r. News Washington about 200 any violence protesters shut down a major highway in Chicago today they're taking their protests to another Chicago landmark reporter Michael plenty from member station w.b. Easy as more. Protesters are upset over a lack of resources in combat and gun violence in Chicago as an average south and west sides that's why organizers say they took to the streets in the soon after with north side for shutting down a portion of the busy lake for a drive to traffic for about an hour then they mark the iconic Wrigley Field home to the Chicago Cubs for France and watch as speakers the crowd inequities in city resources organizers are calling for the city's mayor Rahm Emanuel and its police superintendent to resign for n.p.r. News I'm Michael pointed in Chicago attorneys general from 1000 States and the District of Columbia are challenging efforts by the trumpet ministration to. Rollback Obama era vehicle mileage and emission standards the administration has argued against upping vehicle mileage standards to the proposed levels saying that heavier vehicles would get worse gas mileage are safer logic California Attorney General Javier Basara called ridiculous on its face we want cars to be more efficient it seems sane to think that it is good for families to make cars less efficient the auto industry pushed back against the tougher standard saying would push up the cost of vehicles the trumpet ministrations says it wants to freeze mileage standards at 2020 levels device maker Apple has had a major a milestone the company behind i Phones i Pads and Macs becoming the 1st publicly traded company ever to be valued at more than a trillion dollars Apple shares rose more than 2 point and a half percent today Apple is viewed as a stunning turnaround company at one point in 1997 Apple was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy on Wall Street today the Dow is down 7 points this is n.p.r. Congressional Democrats say they'll be trying to force a campaign season vote on a move by the trumpet ministration to allow health insurers to sell short term plans that are cheaper but skimpier than those offered under the Obama administration's health care law over while the measure would stand a chance of passing their leader voted Senate's expected to die in the g.o.p. Controlled House still Democrats say they think a pre-election Senate vote would put those lawmakers in a difficult spot. The popular streaming service Spotify is pulling some content posted by the prominent conspiracy theorist Alex Jones founder of the website Info Wars Spotify as move follows both Facebook and Youtube which resume deleted 4 videos from Jones N.P.R.'s On a study of Salukis reports Spotify has been facing a backlash from users Spotify says some episodes of the Alex Jones Show violate the hate content policy that the company instituted this May and the company confirmed this week that it has to leave at selected episodes though it did not specify which ones or how many in total since Facebook and Youtube pulled down several Info Wars videos last week Alex Jones has been spreading the message on social media that his content is still available on Spotify and other audio platforms Ana says it's still close n.p.r. News New York Scientists say they've now figured out that birds can learn to eavesdrop on other species especially on their alarm calls they found a stroll in Songbird called the ferry ran is not born knowing distress sounds of other birds but can master the meaning of key vocalisations especially important for birds to signal the arrival of predators I'm Jack Speer n.p.r. News. Support for n.p.r. Comes from n.p.r. Stations other contributors include Alfred p. Sloan Foundation bridging the cultures of science and the yards by supporting new books such as energy or human history by Richard Rhodes chronicling 500 years of energy transitions. So far from our State Public Radio comes from Bowers carpet in Oriental run care in ready serving in our state since 1980 cleaning restoration in oriental rug care from refreshing to re weaving a full list of services is said Bowers rugs dot com and by phone 245-9274 which can be. Mutely spells to 45 watch be from n.p.r. News this is All Things Considered I'm Audie Cornish and I'm Melissa Chang in the past few months we've talked a lot about the human side of immigration detention now we're going to talk about the economics of it 3 quarters of immigrants locked up in the u.s. Are housed by private companies and the Trump administration is looking for space for thousands more each of these new beds is money to the companies that run these centers our co-host Ari Shapiro wanted to know more about the economic impact of immigration detention so we went to a small town in south Texas that depends on the private prison industry where a new immigration detention center is just opening up. The long time we're going to go Lars bakery is known for having the best donuts in Raymond Felton axis and not just donuts the glass cases are full of Mexican pastries like Pandora's Sam pumpkin empanada those when the speaker opened in 1963 the city of Raymond Hill was thriving the downtown area was absolutely everything. We had 3 theaters in town they had a drive in Pierre it was always busy and the restaurants I mean it was a really really going community George Laura took over the bakery from his father in 1974 back then agriculture drove the local economy in the decades that followed a lot of the businesses around Lars bakery closed down today Raymond Hills historic movie theater is vacant even a Wal-Mart closed a few years ago they were but town and we were really devastated but right now the town's biggest employer is the school district and coming in at number 2 is the prison industry that tracing swim they came into town. Nearly what Bush has for the economy good health quite here that was in the early 2000 today there are 3 prisons in town this is the story of one immigration to. Action Center and its impact on a community and it's a story that's playing out in similar towns around the country right now the new center and Raymond Villa only got its 1st bus of immigrants a couple weeks ago but the place already goes by a few different names officially it's a detention facility or the valley an officially Some people call it written short for Raymond Ville get mo others still call it Willacy because Willacy is the name of the detention center that stood on this site before inmates torched it in 2015 Marci some believe almost died here in the Willacy County the trouble began on Friday when the prisoner says 3 of us centers housing units setting fires and vandalizing the building prison is on inhabitable due to all the damage that they caused for years immigrants at Willacy had complained about overcrowding rodents and physical and sexual abuse I think it was in a class of its own when it was running as an immigration detention facility I spoke with Mark Fleming who investigated Willacy almost a decade ago for the enter American Commission on Human Rights he visits a lot of immigration detention centers and he says Willacy was worse than most it included a literal tent city each tent packed with bunk beds and when it was built was intended to be a temporary facility and soon temporary turned into a over 5 to 10 year slowly disintegrating situation the company that operated Willacy is the 3rd largest private detention business in the u.s. It's called m t c or management and Training Corporation they deny that there was a pattern of abuse and we'll hear more from them in a moment when we'll see prison shut down after the riots Willacy County was tens of millions of dollars in debt for the cost of the center so the county sued m.t.c. For breach of contract accusing the company of quote abysmal management of the prison the county later agreed to drop the lawsuit m.t.c. Bought the Willesee site from the county and paid off the county's deaths in the bargain case closed. Prison closed until this summer. Where I in early July protesters marched in the Texas summer heat in front of Willacy County Courthouse commissioners met inside to approve a new contract for m.t.c. To run a detention center on the same site where detainees burned down the old Willacy tent city judge oversaw the process and once the meeting wrapped up he made some remarks I have not had a single constituent come to me and tell me since February of 2015 to just when the right happened. To not consider any We requested an interview with the judge and with each county commissioner they all either declined or didn't reply we also filed a public records request for the new contract between the county and m.t.c. And they haven't responded to that either Kristina was at the courthouse that day she's with a local group called the Equal Voice network to put money on the table and say if you lock up your brothers and sisters we will improve the quality of your streets to position the well being a few against the well being of the collective but I think it is an absolutely false dichotomy that for many people living in Raymond Hill the most important thing about this prison is that it pays corrections officers close to $20.00 an hour other jobs in town pay less than half that. Used to work as a guard at Willacy she quit because of working conditions that she says endangered her pregnancy and she says she wouldn't go back to work there again even though she could use the money when they said it was opening up a well you know what there was a lot of people working there that were from Rwanda they need jobs are going to have jobs the same time with people asked me if I didn't already know through experiences that they were I've already went through with them I I would not and I would recommend anybody to apply them to see told us they hope the new facility will have around 250 employees a full kapan. City the old Willacy prison had 400 David Korea Gomez is the economic development coordinator for the city of Raymond feel this region for the most part is poverty stricken So in terms of jobs of employment it was critical that we have reestablish again the operations here and put our fine citizens in the community back to work did m.t.c. Give Raymond Villa the county will see any kind of reassurances that the things that went wrong the last time wouldn't happen again this time not at the moment but we have an extreme amount of confidence in m.t.c. What gives you that confidence because they're highly reputable in the us in terms of operations. But here in Willacy County the experience shows otherwise I mean here we'll see county things really went badly yes or well we again as you know we unfortunately have the right in 2015 and as a result we lost the operation but you know things happen things happen we put that to the man in charge of Corrections operations for m.t.c. Now Dan Joslin has been at the company about a year and a half after a long career with the Bureau of Prisons we're committed to Willacy County we've been doing business down there for several years and you know we feel like we're part of that community and our goal all along has been to bring a project back there Johnson points out that when Willacy closed it was a Bureau of Prisons facility so every immigrant there had a criminal record in many cases multiple border crossings ice parted ways with Willacy in 2011 because of the complaints about abuse and poor conditions so when the riots happened in 2015 Johnson says it was a more dangerous population of immigrants I think the primary lesson would be that the tents were probably not the appropriate structure to house the sentence offenders those structures were not as secure as as a hard structure would be in the lawsuit it's said that m.t.c. Had abysmally failed to fulfill the terms of the contract do you think that was just a reference to tense I think what it was was posturing just based on what happened in this instance that obviously led to the terminations the contract that it had consequences for the county over time we clearly have moved past that as well as the county that lawsuit the county filed also said m.t.c. Quote turned a blind eye to the enormous problems that plagued the prison from its inception flooding toilets rodents failure to provide basic services and overcrowding so bad the detainees were forced to stay in solitary confinement. I drove to see the new detention center now called l.v.a. It's right next to. The u.s. Marshal Service jail that's also operated by m.t.c. And the 2 look identical so I asked a guard to point us to that's this one here Ok thank you. There are 2 layers of fences with corals barbed wire stacked at the base of the fence on top of the fence. Sign saying no on authorized vehicles beyond this point and then there's the big white and blue flag flying outside that says n t c management and Training Corporation a leader in social impact the tent city is gone now it's just low metal buildings and a big empty courtyard we asked m.t.c. For permission to go inside they said no and sent us a video that the company calls a virtual tour of its other facilities it shows detainees playing volleyball taking computer classes and getting medical care from a friendly looking doctor m.t.c. Staff are trained to treat detainees with great respect and dignity we call it a biopic believe it or not I care approach here in Raymond Hill this debate is basically over the 1st buses full of immigrants arrived at l.v.i. In mid July in other parts of the u.s. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is seeking new contracts for 3000 immigration detention beds near Detroit Chicago Minneapolis and Salt Lake City and ice has asked companies for information about a potential 15000 new beds for family lock ups private detention companies are looking for more towns like Raymond Ville that are eager to cash in on the growing demand. For. Tomorrow are reporting along the Us Mexico border concludes with a story of friends and neighbors whose jobs put them on opposite sides of the fight over immigration enforcement can be an immigration attorney and maybe religion is such a small part of. Us living together next to each other that it's never. It's never even to me. You're listening to All Things Considered. And let's take one last look at this evening's weather smoke will help to keep daytime temperatures cool for the next couple of days a cooling trend is expected to last through the weekend hotter weather could return next week. Looking at a nice lows and tomorrow's highs where you are in the Valley overnight temperatures in the mid to upper sixty's tomorrow's highs ranging from 95 degrees to 100 degrees in Red Bluff and ready in Weaverville in Hayfork about 52 degrees overnight 94 degrees tomorrow. 51 tonight 85 tomorrow in Dunsmuir 57 degrees overnight and 89 tomorrow. In Burnie 49 degrees overnight 90 degrees tomorrow in Westwood 45 your overnight low 85 the high tomorrow. 52 tonight in Chester 87 tomorrow ending Greenville 54 degrees overnight 90 degrees tomorrow as 5 Finally in paradise 93 degrees overnight 66 degrees tomorrow. And in Richfield it is currently 97 degrees for non-state Public Radio I'm kind of all the time is 620. Coming up at 7 fresh air followed at 8 o'clock by selected shores. Support for n.p.r. Comes from this station and from Tire Rack with more than 500 tire models from 22 manufacturers and an online tool for finding tires based on vehicle needs budget and brand tire act dot com helping drivers find deliver install and from Sierra Nevada Brewing Company family owned operated and argued over since 1980 proud supporter of independent thought whether that's online over the air or in a bottle more at Sierra Nevada dot com. From n.p.r. News this is All Things Considered I'm Audie Cornish and I'm Elsa Chang and this week in Zimbabwe there was a vote then accusations of vote rigging followed by street protests and a military crackdown at least 6 people died now finally we have results in Zimbabwe's 1st election since dictator Robert Mugabe was forced out in November what. Zanu p.f. Party is there for Julie declared elected president of the Republic of Zimbabwe with effect from the 3rd of August 28th. That's the Electoral Commission announcing that the winner is Emerson Manning Gaga the man who ousted and replaced Mugabe late last year and P.R.'s ater Prata joins us now from Harare with the details Haider. Hale So all right so this is the man who took Mugabe's place in November he's now won a full 5 year term can you tell us a little more about him. Yeah I think his nickname so I will tell you a lot about him they call him the crocodile for sort of the body guard the spider master and all of those are because of the services he provided to Robert Mugabe the former leader of this country in a lot of ways he was Mugabe his right hand man and he over the many years he was next to Mugabe he was implicated in some of the worst acts of violence in this country and then things changed pretty rapidly he got he was vice president then he was bumped from the vice presidency that forced into exile and then he convinced the military to push his former ally Robert Mugabe out of power and in November he took power and he really made some positive changes here you know he took the police off the street he you know Zimbabweans for the. Time felt free to express themselves and he ran a campaign in which he presented himself as a brand new non-God grew up as a softer version of non-God and when he was asked but you're the crocodile you're the enforcer he would often say I'm not soft as wool and so he is promising a new Zimbabwe was this the result that was expected I can tell I'm hearing cheering and celebration in the background or more protests. No you're hearing celebration here there's a small group of of go supporters here outside the electoral control center So was this expected yes and no I mean we expect that this because of