ICE drops plan for Texas family detention center
ICE drops plan for Texas family detention center
By Jason Buch
Updated 08:28 p.m., Tuesday, February 7, 2012
A coalition of civil rights groups Tuesday celebrated a decision by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement not to build a family detention facility in Texas.
The organizations — including Grassroots Leadership, which opposes private prisons, and the Texas branch of the American Civil Liberties Union — last month raised opposition to ICE's request that private prison companies submit bids.
The proposed facility, the activists said, bore resemblance to a facility near Austin that became embroiled in a scandal over the conditions in which families were held.
The coalition announced Tuesday that ICE had dropped plans to build either a 100-bed facility or two 50-bed facilities to replace an 85-bed family detention center in Pennsylvania.
The Pennsylvania facility is the only family detention center in the U.S., said Bob Libal of Grassroots Leadership, and many of its residents are seeking asylum in the U.S.
“Detention is very psychologically trying for anyone in that situation, but particularly for families with children and small children,” Libal said. “I think that there are much better alternatives to detention that are far more humane and less costly.”
ICE would not comment beyond acknowledging it had sought proposals for the facility, received four offers, and abandoned the project.
“ICE reviewed the requirements for the Family Residential program and determined that continued operations within Berks County, Pa., will satisfy its current needs,” the agency's statement read. “Consequently, no award will be made under this solicitation.”
The facility's opponents cited the T. Don Hutto detention center north of Austin, which stopped holding families in 2009 after years of controversy and charges by immigration advocates that children were being held in prisonlike conditions.
Libal and others said Tuesday that immigrant families who are seeking asylum and do not face criminal charges should be allowed to stay at shelters where they can come and go until their court appearances.
ICE drops plan for Texas family detention center - San Antonio Express-News
