New Immigrant Detention Facility Set To Open In Texas

By Mónica Ortiz Uribe
September 23, 2014

The federal government announced this week it will open a new immigrant detention facility in south Texas this November. The center will be the fourth in the nation that houses adults with children who crossed the border illegally.

The the new facility will be in Dilley, Texas, 84 miles north of the Mexican border. United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement ICE said it will hold up to 2,400 immigrants in less than a year.

The company that will run the new center also operated a facility outside Austin that stopped housing immigrant families in 2009 amid claims of civil and human rights abuses. A temporary detention center in Artesia, N.M., is currently the target of a lawsuit alleging due process violations.

In a statement ICE said the new facility in Dilley will include medical care, play rooms and access to legal counsel.