The Crete village board Monday night unanimously rejected a plan by the country's largest private prison company to build and operate an immigrant detention center in the northern Illinois community.
Crete resident Marimonica Murray helped lead opposition to the proposal.
"When lots of little people and average Janes and Joes of America get together,” she said, “it is possible that the big guns in offices and elected officials do listen."
Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America would have owned the facility and held hundreds of foreign nationals awaiting deportation.
No comments were available from company or immigration officials.