S1: Welcome in San Diego. It's Jade Hindman on this episode of KPBS Midday Edition. California lawmakers revoked charity tax breaks for an Imperial County Ice detention center. We'll talk about why a detention center was ever getting charity breaks to begin with. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. Earlier this year , a KPBS investigation revealed the owner of an Ice detention facility had received millions in tax breaks meant for charities. California lawmakers recently voted to change that. It's called Senate Bill 240 or 420 , I should say. And it was introduced by State Senator Steve Padilla , who represents parts of Imperial and San Diego counties. Governor Gavin Newsom now has until the end of September to sign it into law. I'm joined now by the journalist behind that investigation , Corey Suzuki. He covers the Imperial Valley and South County for KPBS. Corey , welcome back to midday.
S2: Hey , Jade , thanks for having me.
S1: Glad to have you here. So this legislation , Senate Bill 420 , was in response to an investigation you did earlier this year , and it centers on the Imperial Regional Detention Facility. Can you tell us more about that facility and who owns it? Right.
S2: Right. The Imperial Regional Detention Facility is an Ice detention center. It's sits pretty close to the city of Calexico and Imperial County. And this is one of the ice facilities that is privately owned. So it's it's owned by a local owner. It's operated by a private prison company based in Utah. And all of this happens on behalf of Ice. These are Ice contractors. The detention center itself has been in operation since 2014. And what it turns out is that it's owned by an LLC , a local LLC based in the city of Brawley , which is a little bit to the north. And it turns out that LLC is a subsidiary of a local non-profit organization called the Brawley Community Foundation , which has some ties to some well-connected political figures in the Valley and economic development organizations.
S1: So what is the welfare exemption at the center of your investigation?
S2: Well , this is kind of the tax break that has allowed , like you mentioned , the detention center and its owner , to avoid paying a large share of its property taxes. And the welfare exemption is a state tax break that's jointly administered by state and county tax officials , by the State Board of Equalization and the county assessor. And it's meant for some very specific kinds of nonprofits , specifically for charities , hospitals , scientific organizations , and then faith organizations , houses of worship and the Brawley Community Foundation. Since very early in the process of of building , the detention center has applied for this exemption on the detention center property itself , making the argument that because they , as a private organization , were operating this facility , that they were reducing the strain on government agencies and state and county tax officials ultimately accepted that argument and signed off on this exemption. And over the past decade , that's allowed this organization that's essentially the detention centers landlord to avoid paying $6 million in property taxes over over $6 million. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. And you mentioned earlier that there were lawmakers with close ties to the Brawley Community Foundation. Do you know which lawmakers those are , or. Yes.
S2: Yes. And not lawmakers , but local political officials , local economic , one local economic development official in particular. His name is Timothy Kelly. He is the CEO , the one of the founders of the Brawley Community Foundation. And he is also the leader of a prominent economic development organization in the Valley and a member of the local Republican Party and a city council member in Brawley , so that many of the organizations tie sort of , um , sort of pass through through him. But this is kind of it's an organization that is is well connected to some of these other organizations. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. You know , what originally drew you to want to look into the finances behind this facility in Imperial County?
S3: Well , last fall , I got.
S2: Some documents related to this from a source. It didn't they didn't lay out the whole story , but they sort of painted some of the contours of it. And they also told me to look closer at the ownership of the detention center. And so I started filing some public records requests under the California Public Records Act. And at the same time , there was other stuff. I mean , there's been a lot of news in the Valley. Um , there's been a lot , a lot going on. And so , uh , this story kind of was something that as I was waiting for those requests to come through , uh , sort of fell to the back burner a little bit. And then one of those records requests came back. A lot of it was , um , was not very relevant , but one of the documents was the application for this tax break from this past year. And so that was really what got me to start looking at this , to go back and look more closely at those those documents that have been shared with me in the fall and to kind of understand at a deeper level what what had been happening. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. And that , you know , leads us to Senate Bill 420. You report that this bill received bipartisan support. Can you tell us more about the journey that this legislation has gone through?
S2: Well , it has been it was sort of a bill that came together very quickly. It was a it was a bill that already existed. Uh , State Senator Steve Padilla , who represents both parts of San Diego and Imperial County , introduced the language to the bill this summer in response to our investigation. And since then , it's it's gotten a lot of support fairly quickly. I mean , it's supported by a large number of immigrants rights groups. It's also supported by some public safety organizations. And it's gotten , like you mentioned , bipartisan support in the legislature from both many Democrats and also some Republicans. Jeff Gonzalez , who is the Assembly member representing Imperial County. And , um , I should note to that for later in August , towards the end of the legislative session , the Brawley Community Foundation , the organization that owns the detention center in which it originally opposed the bill , also signed on to support it. And the reasons for that , I have not been able to to get at yet. I , I haven't been able to speak with Tim Kelly again. He didn't respond to an interview request for this story. But , um , that's that's also something that happened later in the process. So the bill has gotten a wide range of support.
S1: So what's been the response to the passage of this bill from immigrants rights advocates in the area?
S2: It's really being celebrated by immigrants rights advocates in the Imperial Valley. I spoke with Kristian Salgado , who's an organizer with the Imperial Liberation Collaborative. That's a the group that I spoke with originally around the the story that we put out earlier this year. And Christian really said she sees this as a step towards clarifying what this exemption means , who it's meant to be for and what , what organizations it's meant to serve and what organizations it's not. And and to her and Ice detention center that has a record of alleged abuses. It is really not an institution that falls into that category.
S1: You also write that the passage of this bill really comes at a moment of upheaval for the federal detention system here in California. What did you mean by that? Right.
S2: Right. Well , I think that the , um , there are a lot of questions right now as California lawmakers , this bill is one of one of a large package of bills that California lawmakers have sent to Governor Gavin Newsom that are aiming to increase taxes on private detention center operators that are aiming to improve access for people who are detained at detention centers , to food and to other commissary items at a price that's not exorbitant , to improve access for the public and for for local officials to 911 calls , and so that we can have more so that there can be more transparency around emergency responses , detention centers. And so there is this big effort by California lawmakers to strengthen local oversight powers and impose higher costs on these contractors that profit from their work with Ice. But at the same time , the Trump administration is also responding. In July , the Department of Homeland Security spent $1.5 billion to buy two privately owned detention centers , including the Otay Mesa Detention Center here in San Diego. And our news partners have reported that this move will likely shield these facilities from increased oversight from measures like county health inspections , for example. And one interesting thing that the legislature found as they were considering this bill is that if the federal government buys the Imperial Regional Detention Facility , for example , that would also shield them from paying property taxes again. So , um , there's also this , this decision that the Trump administration administration made with the Otay Mesa Detention Center. It shields these facilities from a certain level of oversight. And it also , um , shields them from paying into , for example , local schools , um , local bonds and into , um , paying property taxes into to the county where , where these facilities are.
S1: I mean , as you this this bill is now headed to the governor. Governor Newsom's desk. You mentioned that earlier. Has there been any indication from the governor's office on whether he is in support of this bill.
S2: Nothing so far. We'll we'll have to see. But like you said , he has until the end of the month to sign it. So I think that's that's the , uh , the time frame we're looking at.
S1: And what will you be following next? Because there seems to be a lot to follow up on here.
S2: Well , I , I think you're you're really right. There are still to me a lot of questions about , um , the foundation , about its work , about its connections and the processes that allowed this to happen. Um , it also seems like this is from from everything that state and tax officials have said that this example of an Ice detention center , specifically receiving this tax break is the only example in California. It's an isolated incident. But it , I think , also raises questions about who else might be accessing these kinds of benefits , um , and benefiting from them potentially. And also , I think it raises just this , this bigger question to of , uh , as the Trump administration continues this aggressive immigration crackdown , how much Californians , Imperial County residents , San Diego County residents should be having to subsidize that.
S1: Great reporting , as always. I've been speaking with Corey Suzuki. He covers the Imperial Valley and San Diego's South Bay here at KPBS. Corey. Thanks again.
S2: Thanks , Jade.
S1: That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.
