Waylon Wong

Welcome to The Indicator, Sergio.

The Trump administration has dramatically changed how we as a country approach immigration enforcement.

Remember, there were millions of removals under President Obama, but the majority of those removals were at the border.

The Trump administration is going hard on enforcement in the interior, picking people up in cities like Minneapolis and Chicago.

And DHS has a lot of money right now to follow through on these big ambitions.

Despite the shutdown over the agency's funding, it got a big chunk of change from the so-called Big Beautiful Bill.

And you reported on one of them in Georgia.

Can you tell us about what you found?

Now, this sounds like a story we've heard before.

A small town that has no industries gets a lifeline in the form of a prison or an immigration detention center.

Up until last year, the facility used to have 1,100 beds, but it's been expanded to hold up to 3,000 people so far.

This has brought about 200 new jobs with an hourly rate ranging from around $18 to about $50, with higher rates for physicians and dentists.

This doesn't sound like a lot of money, especially after you compare it to the $96 million contract that GeoGroup has with the feds.

But for this area, that's a lifeline.

He is clearly conflicted and many residents in the community are conflicted too.

Still, Savannah is very much against this detention center.

In fact, she's been advocating for it to shut down.

She's talking about how immigration policy changes with each new president.

So the center might shut down with the new administration.

Sergio, thank you so much for bringing us the story today.