Artesia facility to hold up to 700 detainees

A New Mexico center where Border Patrol agents receive basic training will house as many as 700 of the people they are being taught to apprehend: immigrants who have crossed the U.S. border illegally. The Department of Homeland Security’s recent decision to turn part of the Artesia training facility into a detention center for migrant families – the latest move by the Obama administration to respond to a wave of Central American migrants crossing into the United States – is an effort to relieve the poor conditions in overcrowded holding stations in south Texas. The Artesia facility could begin functioning as a detention center with 700 beds within a week or 10 days, according to Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., who was briefed by Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Women with children would be held “four or five days,” Pearce said Monday, while the government prepares to deport them. The Artesia center will not be taking unaccompanied minors.  On Sunday, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson issued an open letter in Spanish stressing the dangers of crossing the border and saying that children won’t get a free pass to stay if they cross the border illegally. Newspapers in Central America picked up a Spanish-language newswire story; one El Salvador news site ran Johnson’s comments alongside headlines of gang killings and economic woes. The letter explained that the U.S. Government’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program does not apply to children currently crossing the border – only a child who was here prior to June 15, 2007. And that immigration reform legislation now before Congress would provide for an earned path to citizenship only for certain people who came into this country on or before Dec. 31, 2011. “So, let me be clear: There is no path to deferred action or citizenship, or one being contemplated by Congress, for a child who crosses our border illegally today,” the letter said. Pearce said he believes “the administration came out very strong that they are going to enforce the laws.”...more