CHICAGO – A plan to build a federal detention center in the Chicago area to house illegal immigrants facing deportation is again under consideration after a previous attempt was blocked by intense opposition from activists.

Joliet officials are in early discussions with the federal government and a private company that would run the facility about possibly locating the center in the city about 40 miles southwest of Chicago, said City Manager Thomas Thanas. An earlier plan to build the facility in the nearby village of Crete was rejected by village trustees in June after months of protests.

Immigrant rights activists claimed the private company that would run the site had a record of mistreating detainees. The company, Corrections Corporation of America, has also been criticized by the American Civil Liberties Union, which alleges that private companies base their profit strategies on trying to maintain high levels of incarceration.