California City's council just voted 4-1 to let a private ICE detention facility keep operating, even though the facility had already been running for about six months before the city ever issued its business license. That is backwards. When a city signs off on a major operation after the fact, residents lose their chance to weigh in before the doors ever opened.

Two groups, the Immigrant Legal Resource Center and the Dignity Not Detention Coalition, appealed the city's approval. They argued that immigration detention isn't the same thing as a prison, so it shouldn't be treated as an already-permitted use under the zoning code, and that CoreCivic should have gone through a full conditional use permit process instead of relying on an existing site plan review. The council rejected both appeals anyway, with only Councilmember Shawn Bradley voting to take a closer look.

"The appeal that we're asking for is they uphold the appeal and at minimum remand the application back to the planning commission and the city manager for further review, if not invalidated entirely," said Robby Kumar of No Camps California, according to KERO.

This isn't only about immigration policy. It's about whether California City follows its own rules before letting any company run a large detention facility in town. Residents deserve a real, transparent review process, not a rubber stamp handed out after the fact.

Sign the petition to demand the California City Council reverse its decision and require a full conditional use permit review of the CoreCivic detention facility, before more decisions get made without the public having a real say.