Immigration Expert on Immigrant Facilities Overhaul

The federal department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement yesterday announced an immediate overhaul of its sprawling, complaint-ridden system for detaining more than 32,000 immigrants in 350 facilities.  ICE said last week that it would immediately close the T. Don Hutto Family Residential Facility in Texas, which immigrant advocates have assailed as inadequate for children. From now on, families facing deportation or awaiting decisions on asylum applications will be detained only at Berks Family Residential Center, a facility of about 80 beds, in Leesport, Pa.

Immigration expert and ICE assistant secretary John Morton says "The population that we detain is different than the typical population detained in jail. We need to adjust the balance."  The agency said in a statement that "with these reforms, ICE will move away from our present ... jail-oriented approach. ... The system will no longer rely primarily on excess capacity in penal institutions. In the next three to five years ICE will design facilities ... for immigration detention purposes" only.

Excerpted from Philly.com.