{"id":596934,"date":"2018-06-27T09:42:38","date_gmt":"2018-06-27T15:42:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=596934"},"modified":"2018-06-27T09:43:34","modified_gmt":"2018-06-27T15:43:34","slug":"detention-center-where-immigrants-will-be-sent-before-reuniting-with-children-has-history-of-problems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/06\/detention-center-where-immigrants-will-be-sent-before-reuniting-with-children-has-history-of-problems\/","title":{"rendered":"Detention center where immigrants will be sent before reuniting with children has history of problems"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Port

Reynaldo Leal \/ for The Texas Tribune<\/p>

The main entrance to the Port Isabel Detention Center on Sunday. Port Isabel is about 20 miles northwest of Brownsville.<\/p><\/div>\n

PORT ISABEL, Texas \u2014 When Mike Seifert heard that the federal government had chosen an immigration detention center in this South Texas town as the site to reunify children with their parents after weeks or months apart, his immediate thought was: \u201cSorry, this place fails.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Port Isabel Service Detention Center<\/a>, which occupies 375 acres in a remote part of South Texas just a few miles from the Gulf of Mexico, has an operational capacity of\u00a01,175 adult detainees. And even though a large portion of the detainees held there are awaiting decisions on their asylum requests and have never been charged with a crime, it looks and operates like a prison, according to Seifert, a strategist for the American Civil Liberties Union.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou’re gonna see a bunch of people in prison jumpsuits\u201d at the facility, he said. \u201cThere’s no way this thing can be described as child friendly.”<\/p>\n