Didn't chertoff make some wild claims about actually doing his job recently?

Tougher Immigration Policy Faces Problems
by UPI Wire
Jan 20, 2006
www.postchronicle.com/news/breakingnews/article_2123975.shtml
MCALLEN, Texas - Jan. 20, 2006 (UPI) -- Despite recent U.S. efforts to tighten its border control, Border Patrol agents report a surge in the number of illegal aliens entering the country.

The new effort requires swift deportation of the undocumented people arrested at border crossings such as the Rio Grande instead of releasing thousands of them because of shortage of beds at detention centers.

But in a report from the border town of McAllen, Texas, The New York Times says agents continue to face an uphill battle with too many illegal aliens and too few detention beds.

The report says in the first quarter of this fiscal year, the number of illegals arrested from countries other than Mexico jumped nearly 30 percent from the previous year.

The agents said despite the promise of nearly 2,000 more detention beds to ensure they do not flee before being deported, thousands continue to be released with notices to appear in court.

But officials claim progress, saying the number of illegal Brazilian immigrants arrested soared last summer but dropped more than 90 percent in the month after the new policy started. Similarly, they say captured illegals from Honduras dropped 33 percent.

Hmmm.......looks like the illegals are getting their own prisons now, just for the "ones that really are criminals" I'm sure

Defunct prison to reopen as immigrant detainee center
1/19/2006
Allison Toepperwein
Williamson & Bell County Bureau Chief
www.news8austin.com/content/headlines/?ArID=154063&SecID=2    
A private prison in Taylor has a new, long-term plan to stay up and running.

Since it opened, T. Don Hutto Private Prison in Taylor has fought to stay relevant. Workers there spent most of 2005 worrying the jail might shut down permanently.

In the last year, financial struggles threatened to close the prison for good. In fact, it was scheduled to shut down at the end of 2005, until Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. With no inmates from Texas to fill the cells, there was plenty of room for prisoners evacuating the areas hit by Katrina last fall.

After that need passed, all hope to keep the prison running seemed lost. Then the Department of Homeland Security stepped in with a new contract for T. Don Hutto – as a place to detain illegal immigrants waiting to be deported out of the United States.

Warden Michael Blumberg is confident the government contract will be ongoing.

"Homeland Security officials are spending their money putting computers in here, moving offices in here, moving staff in here. They are going to have somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 and 25, 30 full-time staff working here," he said.

The corrections center will increase its staff by four times the current size. Taylor officials say the prison is important to the town.

"A prison being built brings additional ad valorem tax values to the city in the neighborhood of about $15 to $16 million," Taylor City Manager Frank Salvato said.

That's about 4 percent of Taylor's overall tax base. If the land the prison sits on had to be sold to the county or the state, Taylor would lose that tax revenue completely.

"In a small town, you don't want to lose anything. You don't want to lose jobs. You don't want to lose building values. You want to grow the community so that it spreads the tax base out a little more," Salvato said.

Right now the prison sits empty as it is renovated. Staff expect the facility to be filled by the end of February.