Up North Progressive

GEO Group once again activated the prison located in Baldwin, Michigan, for the fifth time. Unlike the previous four failed activations, this one occurred quietly. The prison is up and running now and receiving detainees kidnapped by ICE.

GEO Group has a less-than-positive relationship with the community. Originally a facility for juvenile offenders, the “punk prison” grew from a 300-bed facility to 1800 beds and operated as a maximum security prison. GEO Group has never kept its promise of being an employer of locals, instead filling the highest-paying jobs internally from other facilities around the country. Each activation lasted only a few years before the prison shuttered when the contracts ended. North Lake spends more time being closed than open. GEO Group supports Baldwin and Webber Township by advocating for a reduction in the property taxes of the vacant building, thereby depriving the community of necessary funding for services.

In response to the current use of North Lake Correctional Facility, also known as “the punk prison,” organizers have two protests planned for the near future. The first event will take place on Saturday, June 21, 2025, from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM at Webber Township Community Park, located on M-37. Manistee County Democratic Party organized this protest.

We strongly oppose GEO’s plan to reopen North Lake as the largest immigrant detention center in the Midwest. This facility will bring increased ICE presence and fear to communities across northern Michigan. GEO’s business model profits from human suffering. Their history—marked by abuse, medical neglect, and multiple hunger strikes by detainees—makes it clear: they don’t serve justice, and they don’t serve our communities.


This facility is backed by a no-bid, billion-dollar federal contract and supported by Rep. John Moolenaar, who has accepted donations from GEO and refuses to meet with concerned constituents. Instead of listening to the people he represents, he’s enabling a system that detains vulnerable immigrants, often without due process, and tears families apart.

You can learn more about the protest here.

The second protest targets Michigan Works, the state’s job recruitment agency, which facilitates all hiring for the GEO Group at North Lake Correctional Facility. This protest will take place on Monday, June 23, 2025, at the Michigan Works Service Center, located on M-37 in Baldwin, at 11:00 AM. No Detention Centers in Michigan organized this protest in response to Michigan Works cooperating with ICE, detaining and kidnapping people in the state.

Michigan’s ICE concentration camp is now open in Baldwin, with support and collaboration from Michigan Works. If you don’t think a state-funded organization should be sponsoring hiring efforts for this atrocity and allowing the GEO Group to continue profiting from the detention and deportation machine, join us at the Michigan Works hiring party in Baldwin on Monday, June 23rd at 11am.ICE out of Baldwin. Lake County deserves better. The GEO Group doesn’t work for Michigan. ICE out of Baldwin. Lake County deserves better. The GEO Group doesn’t work for Michigan.

The public is invited to attend both protests. These gatherings are meant to bring people together who are concerned with the largest ICE detention center in the Midwest operating in Lake County, Michigan. GEO Group has a horrible track record with how they treat prisoners, the prison staff, and their failure to keep their promise of hiring residents of the region.

Northern Michigan doesn’t need ICE operating here, and Lake County doesn’t need North Lake Correctional Facility working with ICE.