Inside the Midwest’s largest immigration detention center with a retired pastor
The facility reopened in June as an immigration detention center after rebranding as the North Lake Processing Center. It’s still run by Geo Group, one of the country’s largest operators of private prisons. It could hold up to 1,800 people.
West Michigan retired pastor Dale Dalman visits immigrants held at the North Lake Processing Center each week.
Since September, retired evangelical pastor Dale Dalman has been driving north from his West Michigan home in Rockford to the North Lake Processing Center, sometimes two, three times a week.
Listen: Inside the Midwest’s largest immigration detention center with a retired pastor
Winter storms and frigid temperatures haven’t stopped him from making the four hour round trip to Baldwin, Michigan, so that he can spend 90 minutes visiting people inside.
“It all started when a former member of my congregation was picked up in Indiana as a truck driver, when [federal agents] were pulling over immigrant truck drivers,” Dalman explained. “He’s been detained in Baldwin since.”
Read the rest of the story from Michigan Public Radio here.
