MIAMI COUNTY, Ind. — Days before the first group of detained immigrants was set to arrive at the Miami Correctional Facility, faith leaders and community members gathered outside the prison, now dubbed the “Speedway Slammer,” to protest its transformation into an immigration detention center.
The peaceful protest, organized primarily by the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis and Northern Indiana, took the form of a prayer vigil Monday afternoon. Participants walked silently along U.S. Route 31, near the Indiana Department of Correction facility, which is slated to house up to 1,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees under a new federal-state partnership.
The Department of Homeland Security announced the arrangement in August, and the Indiana State Budget Committee approved $15 million for the project on Sept. 17. The deal makes Indiana the second state to partner with DHS in this way; the first such partnership, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” is located in Florida…