We've been hearing about some of these centers where individuals and families are held before they are deported. And many aren't in immigration holding facilities, they're in jails and prisons. It's a really really gray area in the legal system, and little of it is very logical in planning or execution.

There are often arrangements made in communities with a high density of prisoners to farm them out (at a tidy profit) to jails in less populated regions of the state or to other states altogether. This fellow could be part of that distribution. Wackenhut is one company big in that, though I don't see a New Mexico site listed in the page linked below.

I found a web site for the Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC) at http://www.bordc.org/threats/detention.php. This is the introductory paragraph on the page I linked to:

By the fall of 2007 the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will spend an estimated $1 billion per year to detain over 27, 500 immigrants. ICE operates eight Service Processing Centers (SPCs) and seven contract detention facilities. Additionally, immigration detainees are being held in local jails and private prisons across the United States. According to ICE, the average detention is about one month, although some detainees are kept for several years.

The Texas facilities are a disgrace, particularly for separating families as they await hearings or deportations.

SRS