New Immigrant Detention Centers Have Old Problems

Family immigration centers that have opened in recent months following an influx of young migrants from Central America exhibit the same problems that prompted the Obama administration to end immigrant family detention at the T. Don Hutto Residential Center, according to a report conducted by the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service and the Women’s Refugee Commission.

Amid lawsuits and controversy concerning mistreatment of Hutto's detainees, particularly children, the Texas center now only holds adult women. “Every issue that came up with Hutto between 2007 and when it was no longer used for families in 2009 has come up again and again in” recently opened facilities in New Mexico and Texas, Michelle Brané, director of the Migrant Rights and Justice Program at the Women’s Refugee Commission, said on a press call.