Plans for Caldwell County immigrant detention center scuttled
Scores of residents pack meeting and air concerns about public safety.
By Molly Bloom
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, January 05, 2008

A company has canceled plans to build a detention center in Caldwell County for immigrants awaiting deportation in the face of strong opposition from residents concerned about their safety, county officials said.

About 150 people attended a public meeting about the project Dec. 27 in Lytton Springs, and at least 90 percent of them opposed the project, Caldwell County Precinct 4 Commissioner Joe Roland said.

"They were pretty forceful," he said of the residents.

On Dec. 10, Louisiana-based Emerald Correctional Management LLC, which manages three correctional facilities in Texas, pitched the idea of a $30 million, 1,000-bed facility to be built in northeastern Caldwell County to county commissioners.

Residents of the sparsely populated area were concerned about the dangers of living near a detention center. Some questioned whether there would be enough water to serve the center and whether Emerald would be able to fill all the jobs there, Roland said.

Mike Moore, Emerald's director of business development, told the Statesman in December that money to construct the center would come from private sources. The facility would be a staging area for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Adult men and women would be housed separately, he said, and no children or families would be held there.

Moore said federal immigration officials in San Antonio had told him that the agency needed a 1,000-bed facility within a 30-minute drive of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport and of Interstate 35. The proposed facility would have a $4 million to $5 million annual payroll and generate 200 to 225 jobs in Caldwell County and an additional 200 jobs in the region, Moore said in December.

Moore did not return calls Friday.

Commissioners will vote on formally ending discussion of the project at their Jan. 14 meeting, Roland said.

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