Halliburton subsidiary Kellog Brown & Root has been awarded a contract worth up to US$385 million to build temporary immigration detention centres in the US. According to the February 4 New York Times, KBR executives said the centres would be built if an unexpected influx of immigrants arrived, or in the event of a natural disaster or other situation requiring additional detention space. Cheryl Little, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center in Miami, told the NYT: "It's pretty obvious that the intent of the government is to detain more and more people and to expedite their removal." There are also concerns that the centres could be used to detain political dissidents. In a January 25 press release, KBR's Bruce Stanski said: "We are especially gratified to be awarded this contract because it builds on our extremely strong track record in the arena of emergency operations support." Halliburton is one of the main companies profiting from the illegal occupation of Iraq.
From Green Left Weekly, February 15, 2006.
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