Immigrant detention centers forming quickly

Men have been working around the clock since late June on the futuristic cluster of tentlike domes to house illegal immigrants.

The quest for laborers has tapped local employment centers dry. Express delivery trucks rumble in and out with materials ordered on the fly.

Less than 12 weeks after President Bush told the nation he was boosting the U.S. Border Patrol and ending the "catch and release" policy blamed on a shortage of federal detention space, 500 metal bunks are to be filled with immigrants awaiting deportation. By Sept. 26, 2,000 will be ready.

The army of workers were under a strict directive from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to complete the project quickly, and Mr. Bush is scheduled to visit the region Thursday.

"This gives a whole new definition to a 'fast-track' project," said Utah-based Management & Training Corp., which will operate the prison.

The Willacy County Detention Center is one of a host of new or expanded prisons, both public and private, that ICE has commissioned for an expected rush of illegal immigrant detainees.

Before Mr. Bush's crackdown on illegal immigration, Mexican immigrants were driven back across the border. Illegal immigrants from elsewhere were given a notice to appear before an immigration court, but few showed up.

The intelligence reform bill signed in December 2004 authorized up to 40,000 new beds in immigrant detention centers nationwide by 2010. Texas has or is expecting at least 7,000.

Source: Associated Press, Dallas Morning News

posted Aug 6, 2006