Art Arthur - Center for Immigration Studies Joins Houston's Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Six, twenty three, our time here in Houston's Morning News.
As of last week, ICE had arrested approximately one hundred
thousand illegals and we have about fifty four thousand of
them that are detained in the detention facility. That's about
twenty five percent above the forty one thousand detention beds

(00:21):
that have been funded by Congress. So you do the
math of the era that we need more funding and
probably more beds and more room. Art Arthur joins us
at the Center for Immigration Studies. Are we flat out
of room? And our detention centers at this point are Yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
We're definitely straining at the edges of our detention capabilities.
You know, you mentioned they're about fifty four thousand detainees.
That's well above congressional funding efforts, and DH's Secretary Christy
Nome and the White House both have a certain amount
of flexibility when it comes to detention. But they need
about one hundred thousand beds and Congress really needs to

(00:57):
fund it, or as you mentioned, you're going to end
up getting turned out on the street and ICE is
going to have to.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
Go out and pick them up again. Okay, so let's
say we get the funding, Where do we put them?
Where do these beds go? I know that here in Texas,
for example, that Governor Abbott has volunteered some use of
state property in order to be able to be used
for a detention facility. Are other states willing to kick
in an effort like that. Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Absolutely, And you know it's important to know, Jimmy that
you know, when I was an immigration judge, we've discussed
this before. I did that for about eight years. I
was at the York Immigration Court in New York, Pennsylvania,
which was actually attached to the York County Prison. York
County used to rent about six hundred beds per day

(01:45):
two ice for detention. There were a couple other counties
in the area that also rented out a few hundred beds,
but under the Biden administration, those counties dropped out of
those agreements because the Biden administration kept put more and
more onerous requirements on immigration detention facilities, basically in an

(02:06):
effort to spike all immigration detention on the way out
the door. So you know, those counties, those localities are
all available to hou's immigration detainees. Again, they do it,
you know, with appropriate safety. They get medical care, they
get food, and you know, education if they need it

(02:28):
while they're in detention. But the money needs to be
there to pay those facilities. It's about one hundred and
fifty dollars per day per migrant who was housed in
those facilities. That money has to come from somewhere, and
that somewhere is Washington, DC.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
Okay, So Congress needs to get to work on this.
You mentioned that these facilities are available, they just there's
onerous regulations that were put on by the byd administration.
It's the president aware of this. Is this something he
can cure with the stroke of a pen through executive order?

Speaker 2 (02:57):
Yeah? No, And in fact it's under standard. They're currently
working on reverting back to the old detention standards that
they used to have that they had under George W.
Bush Barack Obama, the first Trump administration, and reversing some
of those more onerous requirements that have been put in
place by the Biden administration. So it's a multi track effort.

(03:21):
But you know that part is especially important because we
need to get the contracts on. We need to get
the rules in place so that you know, county jails
and you know state prisons know what is expected of them.
We also have housing available on military basis. That's sort
of a last option, but it is an option that

(03:42):
is available. Of course, if it's good enough for Rands,
it's probably good enough for people who have entered the
United States illegally and committed crimes here.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
I would think so, Art, thank you, appreciate it. Center
for Immigration Studies. That's Art Arthur at six twenty six