South Texas Family Residential Center

Last updated
South Texas Family Residential Center
South Texas Family Residential Center
Location1925 W. Highway 85
Dilley, Texas, Frio County
United States, 78017 [1]
Coordinates 28°39′36″N99°11′20″W / 28.659966°N 99.188996°W / 28.659966; -99.188996
StatusOperational
Security classImmigration detention facility
Capacity2,400
Opened2014
Managed by CoreCivic (known as CCA - Corrections Corporation of America)
DirectorJanice Killian

The South Texas Family Residential Center is the largest immigrant detention center in the United States. Opened in December 2014 in Dilley, Texas, it has a capacity of 2,400 and is intended to detain mainly women and children from Central America. [2]

Contents

On June 12, 2015, it was reported that the facility was holding 1,735 people, approximately 1,000 of which were children. [3] In filings dated September 30, 2018, the operator stated that the property was 100% full. By April 2019, there were 499 women and children in the facility. [4]

CoreCivic, previously called "Corrections Corporation of America", is seeking a license to operate the facility as a General Residential Operation but litigation was brought by Texas RioGrande Legal Aid on behalf of Grassroots Leadership and the detainees themselves to block the licensing by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. [5]

Location and description

Approximate location in Texas TXMap-doton-Dilley.PNG
Approximate location in Texas

The site is located approximately 100 miles north of the Rio Grande and 70 miles southwest of San Antonio, southwest of Dilley, Texas, in Frio County. [2] The address is 1925 W. Highway 85, Dilley, Texas, United States, zip code 78017. [1]

The 50-acre site contains 80 small, tan-colored, two-bedroom, one-bathroom cottages in which the families will live. The cottages can house up to 8 people and contain bunk beds as well as baby cribs. They also have a flat-screen television. There is a kitchen, but cooking is not allowed in order to prevent fires. The cottages are connected by dirt roads.

There are also recreational and medical facilities, a school, trailer classrooms, a library, basketball court, playgrounds, and email access. A cafeteria is open for 12 hours a day, but snacks can be obtained at any hour. [2]

The site was formerly a camp used by oilfield workers. [6]

Detainees

The South Texas Family Residential Center was at first only able to accommodate 480 people when the first group of residents arrive in December 2014 from a Border Patrol training camp located in Artesia, New Mexico. The capacity was 2,400 residents by May 2014 with a staff of 600. It was will eventually planned to have a capacity of 3,000. [2] [7] It is intended to detain mostly women and children from Central America. [8]

Administration

The facility opened in 2014 and is operated mainly by CoreCivic. [9] [10]

Local sources indicated the United States Government pays approximately $19 million monthly to operate the facility.

The operating cost of the facility will be $296 per person per day according to a statement made to reporters by an official at Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The warden is Janice Killian.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raymondville, Texas</span> City in Texas, United States

Raymondville is a city in and the county seat of Willacy County, Texas, United States. The population was 11,284 at the 2010 census. It may be included as part of the Brownsville–Harlingen–Raymondville and the Matamoros–Brownsville metropolitan areas.

Immigration detention is the policy of holding individuals suspected of visa violations, illegal entry or unauthorized arrival, as well as those subject to deportation and removal until a decision is made by immigration authorities to grant a visa and release them into the community, or to repatriate them to their country of departure. Mandatory detention refers to the practice of compulsorily detaining or imprisoning people seeking political asylum, or who are considered to be illegal immigrants or unauthorized arrivals into a country. Some countries have set a maximum period of detention, while others permit indefinite detention.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CoreCivic</span> U.S. prison-operating company

CoreCivic, formerly the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), is a company that owns and manages private prisons and detention centers and operates others on a concession basis. Co-founded in 1983 in Nashville, Tennessee by Thomas W. Beasley, Robert Crants, and T. Don Hutto, it received investments from the Tennessee Valley Authority, Vanderbilt University, and Jack C. Massey, the founder of Hospital Corporation of America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GEO Group</span> American institutional facilities company

The GEO Group, Inc. (GEO) is a publicly traded C corporation that invests in private prisons and mental health facilities in North America, Australia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. Headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, the company's facilities include illegal immigration detention centers, minimum security detention centers, and mental-health and residential-treatment facilities. It also operates government-owned facilities pursuant to management contracts. As of December 31, 2021, the company managed and/or owned 86,000 beds at 106 facilities. In 2019, agencies of the federal government of the United States generated 53% of the company's revenues. Up until 2021 the company was designated as a real estate investment trust, at which time the board of directors elected to reclassify as a C corporation under the stated goal of reducing the company's debt.

The T. Don Hutto Residential Center is a guarded, fenced-in, multi-purpose center currently used to detain non-US citizens awaiting the outcome of their immigration status. The center is located at 1001 Welch Street in the city of Taylor, Texas, within Williamson County. Formerly a medium-security state prison, it is operated by the CoreCivic under contract with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency through an ICE Intergovernmental Service Agreement (IGA) with Williamson County, Texas. In 2006, Hutto became an immigrant-detention facility detaining immigrant families. The facility was turned into a women's detention center in 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Immigration detention in the United States</span>

The United States government holds tens of thousands of immigrants in detention under the control of Customs and Border Protection and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Immigrants are detained for unlawful entry to the United States, when their claims for asylum are received, and in the process of deportation and removal from the country. During Fiscal Year 2018, 396,448 people were booked into ICE custody: 242,778 of whom were detained by CBP and 153,670 by ICE's own enforcement operations. A daily average of 42,188 immigrants were held by ICE in that year. In addition, over twelve thousand immigrant children are housed by facilities under the supervision of the Office of Refugee Resettlement's program for Unaccompanied Alien Children. Prior to referral to these other agencies, the CBP holds immigrants at processing centers; between mid-May and mid-June 2019, it held between 14,000 and 18,000 immigrants.

The Delaware Department of Services for Children, Youth, and Their Families (DSCYF) is a state agency of Delaware. It has its headquarters in the Delaware Youth and Family Center (DYFC), located in unincorporated New Castle County, near Wilmington.

Willacy County Correctional Center is a closed detention center located on the east side of Route 77, at the edge of Raymondville City, Willacy County, Texas, United States.

The Texas Juvenile Justice Department (TJJD) is a state agency in Texas, headquartered in the Braker H Complex in Austin.

Cibola County Correctional Center is a privately owned minimum-security prison, located at 2000 Cibola Loop in Milan, Cibola County, New Mexico.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2014 American immigration crisis</span> Surge in immigration along US southern border

The 2014 American immigration crisis was a surge in unaccompanied children and women from the Northern Triangle of Central America (NTCA) seeking entrance to the United States in 2014. According to U.S. law, an unaccompanied alien child refers to a person under 18 years of age, who has no lawful immigration status in the U.S., and who does not have a legal guardian to provide physical custody and care.

The Corsicana Residential Treatment Center or the Corsicana State School was a juvenile correctional facility in Corsicana, Texas. Operated by the Texas Youth Commission (TYC), and later the Texas Juvenile Justice Department (TJJD), it was used for youth with mental illnesses or severe emotional disturbances It closed in 2013. When it was open it had over 200 prisoners.

The Otero County Prison Facility is a privately managed prison for men located in Chaparral, Otero County, New Mexico, operated by the Management and Training Corporation. The facility opened in 2003, and has a capacity of 1420.

The Eloy Detention Center is a private prison located in Eloy, Pinal County, Arizona, owned and operated by CoreCivic, formerly the Corrections Corporation of America, under contract with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Family detention is the detention of multiple family members together in an immigration detention context. In the U.S. they are referred to as family detention camps,family detention centers, or family detention facilities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trump administration migrant detentions</span> 2019–2020 political controversy

The Trump administration has detained migrants attempting to enter the United States at the United States–Mexico border. Government reports from the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General in May 2019 and July 2019 found that migrants had been detained under conditions that failed federal standards. These conditions have included prolonged detention, overcrowding, and poor hygiene and food standards.

A timeline of events related to migrant children's detention centers in the United States

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Incarceration in California</span> Overview of incarceration in the U.S. state of California

Incarceration in California spans federal, state, county, and city governance, with approximately 200,000 people in confinement at any given time. An additional 55,000 people are on parole.

Berks County Residential Center (BCRC), also known as Berks Family Residential Center and as the Berks County detention center, is a 96-bed immigration detention center in Leesport, Berks County, Pennsylvania, operated by Berks County on contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The center operated as a family detention center from March 2001 to March 2021.

References

  1. 1 2 "CCA" . Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "South Texas immigration detention center set to open". CBS News. 15 December 2014. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  3. Hennessy-Fiske, Molly (June 25, 2019). "Immigrant families in detention: A look inside one holding center". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 26 March 2019.
  4. Small, Julie (April 13, 2019). "Detention Beds for Immigrant Families Nearly Empty Amid Surge in Border Crossings". KQED. Retrieved April 14, 2019.
  5. "Judge Halts Child Care License for Dilley Detention Center". The Texas Observer. 2 June 2016. Retrieved 26 March 2019.
  6. "Largest Detention Center in U.S. Opens". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  7. "South Texas Family Residential Center - About the Center" . Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  8. Garbus, Martin (March 24, 2019). "Fleeing threats to her children, a Honduran woman now faces a tough fight for asylum". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 26 March 2019.
  9. "Largest family detention center for immigrants opens in Texas". Reuters. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  10. Anusha Ghosh Roy (15 December 2014). "New residential immigration center makes history" . Retrieved 19 December 2014.