New York Correspondent: U.S. authorities are transferring into federal prisons about 1,600 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees, officers instructed Reuters on Thursday, within the first large-scale use of federal prisons to carry detainees amid a Trump administration crackdown on folks coming into the nation illegally.
An ICE spokeswoman instructed Reuters 5 federal prisons will quickly absorb detainees awaiting civil immigration court docket hearings, together with potential asylum seekers, with one jail in Victorville, California, making ready to deal with 1,000 folks.
Officers of a jail workers’ union mentioned the inflow of ICE detainees raises questions on jail staffing and security. Union leaders at prisons in California, Texas and Washington state who spoke to Reuters mentioned that they had little time to organize for the big consumption of detainees.
At Victorville, the jail getting the biggest variety of folks, staff are shifting about 500 inmates in a medium-security facility to create space, mentioned John Kostelnik, native president for the American Federation of Authorities Workers Council of Jail Locals union.
“There may be a lot motion happening,” Kostelnik mentioned. “Everyone seems to be operating round like a hen with out their head.”
ICE spokeswoman Dani Bennett mentioned, “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is working to fulfill the demand for extra immigration detention area, each lengthy and quick time period” as a consequence of a surge in unlawful border crossings and a U.S. Division of Justice zero-tolerance coverage.
“To fulfill this want, ICE is collaborating with the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), the Bureau of Prisons (BOP), personal detention facility operators and native authorities businesses,” she mentioned in an announcement to Reuters.
