FARMVILLE -- Opponents of a privately run immigrant detention center proposed for Farmville said yesterday that 300 protesters are expected to turn out for a rally and march tomorrow.
"The calls continue to come in every day, so that [number] could change," said Jeff Winder, a spokesman for the Virginia Immigrant People's Coalition, which is organizing the event and is described as a network of organizations concerned with "immigrant justice."
Among the localities from which protesters will be coming are Northern Virginia, Lynchburg, Washington, Richmond and Fredericksburg, said Winder, who is from Nelson County.
Opponents are to gather at noon in the town's Riverside Park. At 2:30 p.m. they will march downtown to Town Hall, where there will be speakers and music, Winder said. The protest is expected to last until 5 p.m.
Opponents hope to derail plans for a privately owned, 1,040-bed detention center, though Town Manager Gerald J. Spates has said efforts to build the facility are on track, with the site cleared and the permits obtained.
Spates said the protest efforts are misdirected.
"Everybody's got a right to protest," Spates said. "The protest should be with the federal government. . . . We're just trying to provide a facility where these people will be housed in comfort."
The contract to operate the facility will be between U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the town. A subcontractor, ICA-Farmville, will run the $21 million, 125,000-square-foot facility.
Town officials have said the center will provide 200 badly needed jobs and an $8.2 million payroll, and generate $716,730 in taxes annually.
Opponents are using the late-November death of Guido Newbrough in the Piedmont Regional Jail's illegal-immigrant detention center against the project.
Jail officials say the death was due to natural causes and could not be helped, but opponents fault the level of care received at the facility and point to it as an example of what is wrong with the system.
"We think this is a really inappropriate way to revitalize our economy," Winder said. "If we think locking up human beings is a way to revitalize our economy, we're in bad shape."
Contact Jamie C. Ruff at (434) 223-3678 or jruff@timesdispatch.com.
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