County Fight Won

Uinta County WY — CoreCivic 1,000-bed ICE facility defeated by community opposition (2017-2020), but county jail now holds ICE detainees

Uinta, WY FIPS 56041

Current status: Community opposition drove MTC and then CoreCivic to withdraw from 1,000-bed facility proposal by April 2020, but ICE achieved smaller-scale detention through existing county jail starting May 2025

The Fight

Between 2017 and 2020, Uinta County residents fought a proposed ICE detention facility that would have been the largest in the Mountain West. The facility was proposed for bluffs above Bear River State Park outside Evanston, initially at 500 beds but doubled by ICE to 1,000 beds in an amended RFP. Community group WyoSayNo organized opposition, and a packed commissioners’ meeting featured a room full of opponents. Both operators — first MTC, then CoreCivic — ultimately withdrew.

However, by May 2025, the existing Uinta County Jail began holding ICE detainees at up to 25 at a time and $120/day — achieving detention capacity without the political costs of a dedicated facility.

Key Details

Timeline

Spring 2017: Utah-based Management and Training Corporation (MTC) proposes 500-bed facility at Evanston City Hall meeting
July 17, 2019: ICE issues RFP for 250-500 bed facility
September 2019: California bans for-profit prisons, potentially redirecting companies to other states
October 3, 2019: ICE amends RFP, doubling upper limit to 1,000 beds
Late July 2019: MTC withdraws
Late 2019: CoreCivic expresses interest
2019-2020: Packed public meetings; WyoSayNo organizes opposition
April 6, 2020: CoreCivic notifies commissioners it will not submit a proposal
May 2025: Uinta County Jail begins holding ICE detainees under IGSA

Key Actors

WyoSayNo: Advocacy group; organizer Antonio Serrano called for “a nationwide ban on new immigration prison construction”
Uinta County Commissioners: Affirmed support for facility despite public opposition
MTC: Original proposer, withdrew after 2+ years
CoreCivic: Replacement proposer, withdrew April 2020
Rowdy Dean (Uinta County GOP Chair): Warned about private prison operators releasing detainees into communities (at 2025 state GOP meeting)

The Irony

The same county that defeated a 1,000-bed dedicated facility now houses ICE detainees in its county jail at $40-50K/month. The distributed county-jail model achieved what the mega-facility could not: detention capacity without a visible target for opposition.

Sources

This research is published at The RAMM — investigative reporting on the detention pipeline.

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