(Guillermo Contreras/San Antonio Express-News)
KARNES CITY – Federal officials say it is the first-of-its kind “civil” detention center in the country built from the ground up, designed to make the immigration detention system more humane. [But] critics say the $32 million facility, known as the Karnes County Civil Detention Center, is not needed.
The center, unveiled on Tuesday, was built as part of an agreement between the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Florida-based The GEO Group, which already runs a jail here. It spans 29 acres and has 608 beds, with the capability of expanding to 1,200. It will hold nonviolent, low-risk adult men apprehended in Texas. Detainees will start arriving this month.
ICE has faced pressure from immigrant advocates and some members of Congress to improve detention conditions for the roughly 400,000 immigrants it houses annually. The agency also has been criticized for bringing immigrants caught in places such as the Northeast to remote facilities in the Southwest, far from relatives in the U.S.
(See the full story at San Antonio Express-News)
RELATED: Detention for Immigrants That Looks Less Like Prison (New York Times)
OTHER HEADLINES:
- What’s Next for Texas’ Women’s Health Program? (Texas Tribune)
- State Lacking Data on Human Trafficking, Officials Say (Austin American Statesman)
- Three Houston-Area Homeless Programs To Get Federal Funds (News 92-FM)
- Fifth Ward Residents Want City Help to Demolish Abandoned Homes (KTRK 13 News)
- Houston Surgeon Finds Cure for Sleep Apnea (KHOU 11 News)
- Fort Bend-ISD Launches i-Pad Learning (Houston Chronicle)
OPINIONS ON THE NEWS:
- The Participation Divide: Separate and Unequal in Digital Media? (J. Victoria Sanders/Texas Observer)
While African Americans and Latinos still lag behind whites in home Internet access, they are using smartphones to go online in significant numbers. Yet scholars and researchers note they have yet to utilize the Internet’s power for developing media, networking and bridging language barriers. - Voter ID Solutions (Editorial/Houston Chronicle)
To fix this problem and get voter ID cleared, the state of Texas must prevent the bill from hurting minority voters. Rather than fight the Justice Department in court, we need to make sure that everyone who should vote can vote.