Humpday Hall of Shame: Forgetting the horrors of T. Don Hutto, Obama plots massive increase in immigrant family detention
July 9, 2014 by Bob Libal
President Barack Obama will be in Texas this week for a fundraising event in Austin. He will also be meeting with Texas Governor Rick Perry to discuss the government’s response to an increase in the number of Central American children and families coming to the Texas-Mexico border to seek asylum.
While many communities in Texas have responded by opening their arms to provide shelter to unaccompanied children, the Obama administration has requested an additional $3.7 billion in money that would mostly be spent on border enforcement, detention, and deportation. This comes despite the fact that federal spending on immigration enforcement already surpasses all other federal law enforcement activities combined.
Included in the supplemental spending request is $897 million to detain and deport refugee families. Reports have emerged from D.C. that the administration may be considering more than 6,000 new family detention beds, up from only 80 beds currently detaining families. The administration has already begun sending asylum-seeking refugee families to be housed at a Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Artisia, New Mexico.

- Log in to post comments