Rise in detainees straining system - To cope, immigration officials are speeding up deportations, moving more people between facilities and using more private jails.
Aggressive immigration enforcement has led to record numbers of detainees in California and around the nation, prompting the federal government to speed up deportations and increasingly rely on transfers and contracts with local jails and private companies.
The detainee population jumped to nearly 27,900 nationwide in fiscal year 2007, up from about 19,700 the previous year, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In California, the population increased to more than 3,700, up from a little more than 3,200 last year.
Two weeks ago, the population surpassed 30,000 nationally and nearly reached 4,000 in California.
The main reason cited for the upward trend is the government's decision to end its practice of catching immigrants and immediately releasing them.
Detention is the only way to guarantee that people leave the country when their deportation is ordered, immigration officials said. Fewer than a third of people out of custody leave the country when ordered to do so, despite being under intensive supervision.
"If we have them detained and they are ordered removed, it's almost a virtual certainty that they will, in fact, be removed," said Gary Mead, assistant director of the immigration agency's Detention and Removal Operations.
"Everything short of detention is less effective to one degree or another."
The number of immigrants deported has risen to more than 261,000 in fiscal 2007, up from about 177,000 two years ago. The 2007 fiscal year ended Sept. 30.
Organizations opposing illegal immigration praise the government for locking up and deporting more immigrants.
"The administration has finally realized they needed to dramatically ramp up their detention capacity if immigration enforcement is ever to be credible," said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the conservative Center for Immigration Studies.
But immigrants and their advocates say the high numbers have led to crowded conditions and have limited some immigrants' access to medical care.
Detainees at the San Pedro Processing Center on Terminal Island often had to sleep on inflatable beds on the floor and had difficulty getting access to phones, immigrants and their attorneys said.
The detention center, opened in the 1930s, was temporarily shut down last month for maintenance.
- Huntington Beach refers 262 arrestees to ICE Sep 23, 2008
- 19 Alleged Gang Members in O.C. Face Deportation Mar 11, 2006
- 700 jailed in immigration sweep Jan 24, 2007
