Baldwin, a small town in Lake County, is about to get one of the largest immigration detention centers in the country. 

GEO Group has owned a private prison there for decades, called North Lake Correctional Facility. It’s been closed since 2022. 

A new contract from Immigration and Customs Enforcement has the company promising to bring hundreds of jobs to the poorest county in Michigan. 

But for local residents, that promise is tempered by what has long been an on-again, off-again relationship.

IPR’s Claire Keenan-Kurgan reports. 

Maxwell Howard contributed reporting to this story.  

This work is part of the Northern Michigan Journalism Project, led by Bridge Michigan and Interlochen Public Radio, and funded by Press Forward Northern Michigan.