Posted on 05/18/2005 1:56:55 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch
PEARSALL — Overcoming some last-minute glitches, homeland security officials have opened the doors to the country's largest and most modern immigrant detention center.
The $49.5 million South Texas Detention Complex is to begin housing detainees in the next month or two. It has room for 1,020 of them — 850 men, 150 women and a temporary holding area for 20 minors.
It was hailed as an economic boon for Pearsall, a town of about 7,000 people an hour's drive south of San Antonio that will benefit from 300 new jobs with a yearly payroll in excess of $6 million.
"This will have a big impact in our community, and hopefully it'll be the beginning of many good things to come," Mayor George Cabasos said at a grand opening ceremony attended by dozens of invited officials, including Texas-based consuls of Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
The government's immigration law enforcement arm, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, owns and supervises the center, but day-to-day operations will be in the hands of a private firm, Correctional Services Corp.
Officials leading a tour of the 238,000-square-foot facility visible from Interstate 35 praised its modern capabilities.
It's a one-stop shop for immigration enforcement.
The center is designed to restrict detainees' movements as much as possible.
Unlike most other migrant lockups, the Pearsall center has no cafeteria. Instead, it offers "satellite feeding" — meals shuttled into warehouse-size dormitory areas with steel-frame beds and steel tables.
Each dorm has four public phones and two large televisions suspended from the ceiling — which only can be heard through headphones — and separate outdoor recreational areas with basketball hoops.
The center has a medical clinic with a lab, dental equipment and 22 beds. There are four isolation rooms for those diagnosed with infectious diseases.
The in-house services will reduce time and money spent transporting detainees for off-site treatment, officials said.
Men and women will be housed separately, but won't be segregated at the clinic. The only actual jail-like cells in the center are for detainees deemed high-risk.
A separate area of the center houses four courtrooms, where detainees will have their say in front of an immigration judge.
The massive, high-tech structure — the main corridor stretches one-fourth of a mile — isn't immune to technical difficulties. During the tour, an administrator had trouble opening and closing a back entrance through which detainees will arrive and be processed.
The door could be opened both automatically and manually, but the operator inside and the guard outside spent several frustrating minutes before getting it to work.
"It's a brand-new facility," ICE supervisor Valentín De La Garza said with a smile. "There are still some kinks left to be worked out."
The South Texas Detention Complex will be operated on a five-year, $109 million contract and will serve the San Antonio ICE district, which includes 54 counties in South Texas stretching from Brownsville to near Dallas.
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hrozemberg@express-news.net
Your tax dollars at work!
I can't believe my state did this. Instead of housing them, why not SEND THEM ACROSS THE BORDER??!!! ARGH!
Pearsall Ping!
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off this South Texas/Mexico ping list.
It needs to have a firing range.
$109 million would build a nice fence with mine field in front of it.
Some Constitutional protection called "Due Process" or something.
Ok. After a hearing where they are determined to be here illegally, then send them the F back where they came from.
These parasites are destroying us at a faster rate than the U.S.S.R. ever could.
The facility has four courtrooms. It sounds like the detention facility is intended to do just that.
These parasites are destroying us at a faster rate than the U.S.S.R. ever could
As a strong right-to-lifer, I find your attempt to dehumanize an entire group of people to be quite distressing.
These people have a right to life but they don't have a right to break our laws in pursuit of a better life anymore than I have the right to rob a bank to improve my life. These criminals utilize our schools, our hospitals and our social services and their contribution to our treasury is so trivial it amounts to nothing. They are sucking our taxpayers dry. Parasites is a fairly appropriate word.
Back when I was in high school, the popular radio station ran a contest. First prize was a weekend trip to beautiful Pearsall. 2nd Prize was a week in Pearsall and 3rd Prize was two weeks in beautiful Pearsall.
Maybe the Feds want to punish the illegals by sending them to Pearsall so they won't come back??
I find that an entire group of people (At least 10 Million) with NO regard for our laws and bankrupting us in every way is intolerable and causing us to lose our national identity.
I used the word parasite for that exact reason. They are feeding off the host with no real other purpose.
Apologists for these criminals should start by taking about four of them in to live with them. After one month they will be more anti-illegal alien than I am.
What we need to do is emulate Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's tactics - tent cities where prisoners wear stripes and pink underwear, consume around 80 cents of rations per day and work on old-fashioned chain gangs. No multimillion dollar coddling centers for criminals!
This sounds OK to me. When we catch Mexican illegals, rather than immediately repatriating them like we do now, we should hand them a tablespoon and put them to work for a month digging a mote across our southern border. No work, no tortillas and no refries. Second offense is two months and the third would be a year.
1,020. That's about one day's catch.
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