The Trump administration is expanding its massive deportation efforts to include the country's families illegally, and ICE has opened two previously messy Texas detention centers to keep them, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed in the Post Thursday.
DHS spokesman Tricia McLaughlin said the families who targeted this new wave of President Trump's massive deportation attacks “all… have a final deportation order from a federal judge.”
“This administration is not going to ignore the rule of law,” she added.
Policy was first reported NBC News.
According to McLaughlin, the immigrant families will soon be housed in Kerns and Dilly Detention Center, both of which will be “modified” to hold them.
Located about 75 miles southwest of San Antonio and with a capacity of 2,400 detainees, Dilly was Ice's largest detention center when it was in operation.
Last year, Biden administrators closed the huge facility, saying it was “the most expensive facility on the national detention network.”
Ice said at the time the detention facilities run by private prison contractors would be replaced by 1,600 existing detention beds made available in the area, explaining that it was a cheaper option.
John Fabricatore, former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), field office director, previously told the Post that the decision to close Dilly marked “not only a lapse of judgment, but also an intentional act of pardon through inaction.”
Kearns Detention Centerwhich previously had then President Joe Biden detained adult detainees, but adds more than 600 beds to detain the ice.
The Obama administration opened both facilities and used the Dilly to detain the family. The Biden administrator then moved the facility to accommodate only one adult.
In his speech to Congress Tuesday, Trump touted his “largest deportation operation in American history, larger than current record holder President Dwight D. Eisenhower,” and called on Congress to provide funding “without delay” for the operation.
The ice is now “Burning” funds to hold 41,500 illegal immigrants “Sources from the senior institution previously posted.
The Trump administration continues to expand its efforts, but immigration advocates are fighting back.
said Eunice Cho, senior staff lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union's National Prison Project. Washington Post That dilly is “known for neglect and abuse of family and children,” and its reopening is “the beginning of another dark chapter in the treatment of immigrants in this country.”
Cho also took a swipe at Corecivic Inc., a private contractor set up to operate the facility, saying, “We can celebrate the opportunity to benefit from the detention of immigrant children and families at the Dilly Detention Facility, but this only brings more unnecessary pain at taxpayer costs.”
The facility generates revenue of $180 million each year, according to the contractor.
Former ICE deputy director Scott Mechkowski has fought back criticism of detention, claiming ICE has a “higher” standard than prisons “higher than any state.”
“For those concerned about the treatment and human rights that people are detaining in people's ice… the national detention standards are far above,” the standards for national correctional facilities said.
