The South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, will reopen under a new agreement between ICE and private prison company CoreCivic. This move reverses the Biden administration’s policy of ending family detention.
The facility, which was criticized during the Trump administration for family separations and mistreatment, will now house up to 2,400 people. It was originally built in 2014 to detain immigrant families fleeing violence in Central America but stopped housing families after funding for the contract ended in 2024.
CoreCivic’s CEO, Damon T. Hininger, expressed confidence in meeting increased demand for detention space. This comes after the company expanded contracts with ICE in four other states to increase detention capacity.
With a growing backlog of immigration cases, the government faces rising costs and delays in deportation. The expansion of detention facilities could lead to the construction of temporary centers to manage the surge.
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