LAKE COUNTY, Mich., (WPBN/WGTU) -- More than 50 organizations across Michigan and the country have written an open letter asking government officials, including the president, not to re-open a Lake County private prison once it closes at the end of this month.

The North Lake Correctional Facility in Baldwin is scheduled to close on September 30 due to a 2021 executive order by President Biden to end the federal government's use of private prisons.

This letter follows a recent proposal from Michigan Congressmen Bill Huizenga and John Moolenaar to repurpose the facility as an immigration and customs enforcement detention center.

“We are deeply troubled by this proposal, because it follows a recent pattern of actions from the Biden administration contravening its stated goal of ending the use of private facilities for detention,” the letter states. “Because we know that ICE operates a system of abusive and inhumane detention centers across the country, and because the presence of this prison in Baldwin has been disastrous for decades.”

The North Lake facility has been housing federal inmates since 2019 and several hundred employees.