By John Burnett | NPR
The largest immigrant detention facility in the country is under construction in the brush country of South Texas, about 85 miles from Mexico. What’s unusual is how the government bypassed the normal bidding process, using a small town in Arizona to be the contractor for a detention center 931 miles away in Texas.
The South Texas Family Residential Center sounds like it could be a pleasant apartment complex, but it’s actually going to be a detention camp for women and children immigrants who came here illegally from Central America.
Next to a state prison and a “mancamp” — Texas lingo for oilfield worker housing — is where construction crews are installing modular buildings that will eventually hold 2,400 detainees, who will be technically in the custody of U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
