Homeland Security buses enter Victorville prison as first wave of immigration detainees arrive

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By Shea Johnson
Staff Writer
Posted at 11:03 AM Updated at 11:13 AM

VICTORVILLE — Immigration detainees began arriving Friday at the Federal Correctional Complex here, part of the estimated first 250 expected to be dropped off at the prison before the weekend.

The detainees were believed to have come from Texas, specifically San Antonio, according to an official with the American Federation of Government Employees, the union that represents workers at the prison.

Shortly after 8 a.m., two Department of Homeland Security buses could be seen entering the premises. There were three other non-marked buses parked outside the facility’s security entrance, but it was unclear whether they were also carrying detainees.

The prison has set aside 1,000 beds in total to hold immigration detainees as part of an inter-agency agreement between the Federal Bureau of Prisons and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which needs the extra space amid a Trump administration zero-tolerance crackdown on illegal border crossings.

Six hundred other beds have been secured by ICE at prisons in Washington, Texas, Oregon and Arizona, but Victorville will see by far the majority of immigration holds.

More detainees were expected to arrive through Monday and possibly Tuesday. They were caught at the border or elsewhere and suspected of entering the country illegally, and await deportation or adjudication by an administrative judge.

Danielle Bennett, an ICE spokeswoman, said Thursday that the transfers were expected to be only temporary until ICE can obtain long-term contracts for new detention facilities, “or until the surge in illegal border crossing subsides.”

But John Kostelnik, president for the local prison union, said there was no guarantee that detainees will be held only for 120 days, which is the timeline that was offered during a Thursday morning conference call with a Bureau of Prisons regional director.

To make space, nearly all of some 600 inmates were relocated from the medium-security FCI-II facility to the medium-security FCI-I, also on the FCC compound. The complex, as a whole, maintains almost 3,700 inmates in four facilities, including the high-security U.S. Penitentiary.

Adding 1,000 detainees has ratcheted up concerns among union members, who have already raised questions over inadequate staffing and will be receiving no additional bodies to assist with the new population.
Kostelnik said the prison has been told that some civilian staffers will be filling in for guards, a practice known as augmentation. He also said it was unclear who was among the detainee population, leaving workers to speculate between the extremes of potentially dangerous criminals to political asylum seekers.

An ICE spokeswoman on Friday said the agency would not be commenting further on the transfers. Messages left with the Bureau of Prisons have gone unreturned.

The move has been criticized by immigration rights advocates, who say it’s tantamount to treating a vulnerable population like criminals, and Kostelnik agreed that the coordination between ICE and BOP seems unprecedented.

Shea Johnson can be reached at 760-955-5368 or SJohnson@VVDailyPress.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DP_Shea.

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