IMMIGRATION MATTERS: Locking Up the Huddled Masses

WESLACO, Texas -- A catchy T-shirt designed by Amnesty International USA's Refugee Program has a picture of the Statue of Liberty and reads: Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free. AND WE'LL LOCK THEM UP.

The reason for the sarcasm: An alarming number of immigrants are being jailed while they're going through court proceedings to determine whether they can remain in this country legally. Under the current law, some people must be detained throughout the process because of prior criminal convictions. However, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been locking up immigrants in big numbers, including thousands who aren't required to be detained.

Thanks to the DHS' Operation Reservation Guaranteed, the number of immigrants in detention has risen from 18,000 when the operation was launched in July 2006, to 25,000 by the end of September. President Bush's budget for 2007 includes funds to increase detention bed space by 25 percent.

Facilities are going up faster than one can imagine. Last June a 2,000-bed detention center was approved for Raymondville, Texas, 45 miles from my office. I thought it would take a couple years to build, but I was wrong. By August 3, 2006, the facility was up and running. It¹s now at or very near its 2,000-bed capacity.

Texas seems to be the ideal place for detention centers. In 2005 a new facility opened in Pearsall, with space for 1,200. The center in Los Fresnos was recently expanded from 800 to 1,200 beds. Hutto, Texas is home to a new family detention center where DHS can hold people who have been apprehended with their children. If you¹ve never heard of these places, there¹s a reason.

Immigration detention is big business. Many detention centers are operated by for-profit companies. The federal government pays the companies, which in turn often pay the counties. Since Texas has plenty of poor rural counties with cheap real estate, it's not surprising that thousands of immigrants are detained here. But Texas isn't alone. There are immigrant detention facilities nationwide, including county jails, holding thousands.

While the federal government spends millions to jail immigrants, the other costs are far more troublesome. Families that lose the main breadwinner may have to seek public assistance such as food stamps or welfare. Some people lose their homes or are evicted after falling behind on mortgage or rent. Employers lose valuable workers and productivity decreases. Children of detained single parents may end up in foster care.

Then there are costs more difficult to quantify, such as the erosion of the right to due process. There¹s no right to a court-appointed attorney in immigration court. Increasingly, detainees are sent to south Texas from all over the U.S. -- from Miami, New Jersey and Pennsylvania -- to fill up new bed space. In Texas there are only a handful of nonprofit organizations serving rural areas and they don¹t have the staff or resources to represent everyone who can¹t afford an attorney. Even in large cities with many pro bono and nonprofit lawyers, many people go unrepresented.

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