Thread: TX - Exclusive Look Inside I.C.E. Deportation Process

Updated: Wednesday, May 7 2014, 08:08 PM CDT
By Grace White

The number of immigrants being deported from South Texas is rising, but the way they're going home may surprise you.

We got a rare look inside the battle to protect our border.

While most of our city is asleep, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents are going after the worst of the worst..

"This is probably one of the most dangerous operations we conduct," said Enrique Lucero, Director of I.C.E.'s San Antonio field office.

Immigrants who have criminal records are a top priority for I.C.E.

"Murder, rape, sexual assault," said Lucero.

This is a 3 day effort that rounded up 50 people accused of violating U.S. Immigration laws.

"We arrested an individual that was convicted of indecency with a child, a sex offense, here locally in San Antonio," said Lucero.

I.C.E. agents are on the street everyday, but during this special operation more teams are deployed.

"We've been to every type of neighborhood you can imagine... right now in the San Antonio field, i have approximately 5,800 people in custody."

Around 600 of them are here in I.C.E. Karnes County Civil Detention Center and we got an exclusive tour.

"We do not have segregation, everybody we have here is low risk and non-violent residents," said Valentin De La Garza, spokesman for the facility.

If somebody does misbehave they are taken somewhere else.

"During the day from 6am-10pm they can walk out of their suites at anytime," said De La Garza.

Notice it's suites not cells.

The people here are called residents not inmates and they have access to all kinds of activities.

"Guitar lessons... zumba in the gym," said De La Garza.

While we were there, we saw a soccer game, a church service and an English class, all going on at the same time.

They even have a library with internet access.

It's restricted, so you can't get on Facebook, but Gmail is allowed.

"Here's a washer and dryer they have access to," said De La Garza.

In the 8 man suite, there's TV and a phone, with free calls to embassies around the world.

At meal time, there's always unlimited rice and beans and salad bar, in addition to whatever is being served.

The average stay here is 21 days.

This is a side of the San Antonio International Airport, you've probably never seen.

This is 'I.C.E. Air.'

There are 135 people on this plane, headed to Honduras.

"The majority on this flight about 80% percent of them are recent border entrants that were arrested through the border patrol," said Lucero.

The others on the plane are immigrants convicted of crime, like the ones we saw I.C.E. agents go after.

In the last year, the number of flights leaving San Antonio doubled.

"I.C.E. Air generally costs $8,500 an hour, the flight hours could be up to 5 or 6 hours for one mission to be complete," said Lucero.

A mission I.C.E. believes is directly tied to protecting our communities and securing our border.

"This work is very important for public safety," said Lucero.

I.C.E agents say it costs around $68 dollars a day to house an immigrant at the Karnes County Civil Detention Center.

That's about ten dollars more than it costs to house inmates in Bexar County Jail.

http://www.foxsanantonio.com/news/fe...l#.U2sADFfisdw

Before we start objecting to the costs, though suites instead of jail cells is objectionable, the costs are well worth it. Now, get it done, then responsibly spend for port and border security and there will be less of these expenses.