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Pearsall detention complex to expand

Web Posted: 08/02/2006 12:24 AM CDT

Jeorge Zarazua
Express-News Staff Writer

A Florida-based prison management company announced Tuesday that it will expand the South Texas Detention Complex in Pearsall to house an additional 884 immigration detainees, increasing the capacity to 1,904.
GEO Group Inc. said the expansion will not require new construction and has been approved to meet the future bed needs of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as it implements its "Secure Border Initiative" on the nation's southern border.

Carl Rusnok, an ICE spokesman in Dallas, said the expansion is one of several the agency has secured this month, which will increase its detention capacity by 1,500 beds to a total of 22,800.

Aside from the Pearsall complex, ICE has contracted to have 500 beds available at a detention facility in Raymondville, Rusnok said. That facility, which uses tent-like domes for detainees, opened Tuesday.

A lack of detention space was blamed for the country's "catch and release" policy, under which more than 80 percent of undocumented immigrants who were freed failed to appear at court hearings.

Mexican detainees often opt for "voluntary departure" and are released to Mexico at the border, but most non-Mexican detainees go through formal deportation proceedings, and their numbers in recent years overwhelmed the government's detention space.

Two months ago, President Bush vowed to end the practice, calling it "unacceptable," and said more detention centers would be built. Bush is scheduled to visit the Rio Grande Valley on Thursday to discuss immigration issues.

"ICE is not only adding bed space, but using bed space more efficiently to achieve a policy of 'catch and remove' at the Southwest border," said Julie Myers, ICE assistant secretary, in a statement.

Bush's visit comes a week after Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced that ICE was close to ending the "catch and release" policy, saying the agency had achieved a "catch, detain and remove" policy for all categories of undocumented immigrants caught at the border except those from El Salvador.

Chertoff recently told a U.S. House subcommittee that ICE has begun detaining all Salvadorans apprehended along the Southwest border in every sector except the Rio Grande. As more beds come on line, the "catch and release" practice would stop, he said.

But Bob Libal of Grassroots Leadership, an Austin-based nonprofit group that opposes privately run prisons, said the government should focus on reforming immigration policy rather than building new jails.

"It's sad," Libal said. "Instead of searching for a more comprehensive immigration solution, it seems that DHS (Department of Homeland Security), ICE and the administration want to go to a 'detain and deport' policy."

He said the winners are the private prison companies "looking to make money off a crackdown on what are largely nonviolent border crossers."

In an announcement, the GEO Group said the Pearsall expansion is expected to generate about $11.3 million annually in additional operating revenue from the government.


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jzarazua@express-news.net