Right now there are 673 immigrant detainees housed at the South Texas Family Residential Center. Inside the 50-acre secured site, the residents have many of the same amenities available to the general public with one exception – the freedom to leave.
The detention center opened in December. Since then, its population has slowly ticked up, and soon, it could soar. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to expand the facility from 960 beds to 2,400 by the end of the month.
Expanding comes at a cost – nearly $260 million a year. ICE pays the Corrections Corporation of America that much to run the facility. Even at full capacity, each detainee will cost taxpayers more than $108,000 a year.
The state spends more than $3 billion on its entire prison population, but it does so much more effectively, spending little more than $21,000 on each inmate.
ICE money pays for incarcerated families to have access to education, recreation, health care and legal counsel. Five courtrooms on site allow asylum, deportation and bond hearings to take place via teleconference.
ICE officials would not say what the average length of stay is at the facility, but they did say only four families remain from the first population intake five months ago.
Of the 673 detainees at the South Texas facility, the vast majority come from Central America. That includes 268 from Honduras, 198 from El Salvador and 188 from Guatemala.