Questions linger amid promised overhaul of immigration detention
February 27, 2010 12:19 AM
Jeremy Roebuck
The Monitor

As Michael Watkins walks the halls of the Port Isabel Detention Center each day, he is at once the most popular and most reviled man in the room.

Some detainees dressed in matching color-coded uniforms approach him with smiles and extended hands. Others shout obscenities from behind plate glass.

After 16 years working in the U.S. immigration detention system, though, he has learned that such a mixed reception comes with the job.

“Generally speaking, people don’t want to be detained,â€