Texas immigrant center to hold up to 2,400
Sep 23, 5:00 PM EDT
DILLEY, Texas (AP) -- U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced Tuesday that a fourth center to house families apprehended while crossing the Southwest border into the U.S. will eventually hold 2,400 people in Texas.
ICE will operate the residential facility when it opens in November in Dilley, Texas, about 70 miles southwest of San Antonio. It will house immigrant adults with children caught entering the country illegally.
The South Texas Family Residential Center will be the fourth such facility, three of which have opened in recent months following a surge in the number of immigrant families crossing the Southwest border. It's meant to expedite their return to their home countries and deter others from embarking on the journey, according to a statement from ICE. Other centers have opened in Karnes City and Artesia, New Mexico. There had been one existing facility for immigrant families in Leesport, Pennsylvania.
The Dilley center initially will house 480 people and will eventually hold 2,400. The facility, like others for families, will provide medical care, social workers, educational services and access to legal counsel, according to ICE.
Shortly before that announcement, a coalition of immigrant advocacy groups hosted a conference call for reporters in which they called on the U.S. government to stop its expansion of family detention centers.
Advocates from We Belong Together and the National Immigrant Justice Center said that women and children should not be detained while waiting for their immigration cases to move forward.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...09-23-15-52-27
Massive 'Residential Center' to Open in Texas for Illegal Immigrants
by Kristin Tate 24 Sep 2014, 10:51 AM PDT
breitbart
HOUSTON, Texas -- A large new immigrant housing center will be opened in South Texas. The South Texas Family Residential Center will ultimately hold 2,400 individuals, primarily families, who were apprehended while crossing the Texas- Mexico border. During their stay at the center foreigners will be provided with taxpayer-funded "medical care, play rooms, social workers, educational services, and access to legal counsel," Breitbart Texas has learned.
The facility will open in November in Dilley, Texas, which is located about 70 miles southwest of San Antonio. This is the fourth facility of its kind to be built in Texas, according to Fox News.
The new center is opening amid claims that the border crisis has slowed down; it could signal that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is expecting the number of crossers to pick up again.
An ICE spokeswoman refused to give Breitbart Texas answers to specific questions and instead provided a statement that said the agency"plans to open and operate a new residential center in Dilley, Texas to house adults with children in response to the influx of adults traveling with children apprehended along the southwest border. "
The massive facility, which will lie on a 50-acre property, will be "ready for full capacity within 210 days," the agency's statement continued.
Such centers are used to house immigrants while they wait to be "processed" by ICE. Once processed, the migrants are placed in the custody of President Obama's Health and Human Services (HHS).
At this time, many young immigrants are placed with families or in foster homes throughout the United States. The HHS website states that the federal government is required to "feed, shelter, and provide medical care for unaccompanied children until it is able to release them to safe settings with sponsors (usually family members), while they await immigration proceedings. These sponsors live in many states."
They are expected to attend an immigration court hearing in the future, but most never show up and ultimately get lost in the woodwork or forgotten about.
http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-T...gal-Immigrants
U.S. Rep. voices concerns over Dilley immigrant facility
Updated TODAY, 6:27 PM
By Brian Mylar
Anchor/Reporter
ksat.com
DILLEY, Texas - There are still a lot of questions about the South Texas immigrant detention facility scheduled to open in November in Dilley.
The 2,400-bed facility will house immigrant children and their parents and is a response to the flood of people illegally crossing the border.
The facility will be for-profit and will be run by the same company that was criticized for the inhumane treatment of detainees at a facility north of Austin.
Congressman Henry Cuellar had a lot of questions about the facility and is waiting for answers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
"ICE has been responsive. They have not been responsive to this so certainly we are going to have a lot of questions when they do provide,” said Cuellar. “They're saying they're putting everybody together to do a briefing but I think they can move a lot faster that what they've done."
Cuellar questioned why the facility is being built without a competitive bid process and if taxpayers are getting the best use of their money.
http://www.ksat.com/content/pns/ksat...-facility.html
