Report: $266 a day to house each illegal, $117 more than a hotel room
By Paul Bedard | September 25, 2014 | 11:18 am
Topics: Washington Secrets Immigration Border Security Law ICE
A new and critical report on the Obama administration’s treatment and detention of illegal immigrants reveals that it costs $266 a day to house each person for a potential total cost of millions daily.
The 11-page report from Detention Watch Network focused on the new detention facility in Artesia, N.M., and found that the 672-bed facility costs $266 per person to operate. The report also noted that overall, immigration officials detained 478,000 illegals in 2012, raising the possible detention cost to taxpayers to over $100 million a day.
The local La Quinta Inn and Suites charges $149 a room and offers a kitchenette, free breakfast, free internet and free parking.
The report provided to Secrets charges that immigrants housed in the brand new facility opened in June are being mistreated.
“These families have braved the dangerous journey to the U.S. to seek safety and protection from violence in their home countries,” said the report, titled “Expose & Close.” It added, “In response, our government has incarcerated them in the Artesia Family Residential Center, a remote facility, hours away from legal counsel and social services, under physically and psychologically harmful conditions that only further compound the traumas that they have already endured.”
The report, compiled with the help of the ACLU, dubbed the facility a “deportation mill.”
It also demands that the immigrants start receiving better food, medical care, dental work and psychiatric help.
“These problems are easy to fix: Close Artesia and all family detention facilities, and instead divert funds toward providing refugee support to the families and children arriving at the border,” concludes the report.
http://washingtonexaminer.com/report-266-a-day-to-house-each-illegal-117-more-than-a-hotel-room/article/2553940
