Showing ‘Credible Fear’ Is A Hurdle In Avoiding Deportation
According to the Global Detention Project, a nonprofit research center based in Switzerland, the United States has the largest immigration detention system in the world, operating about 200 centers with a capacity to detain more than 30,000 immigrants at a time and detaining more than 600,000 immigrants in 2013. There are three family “reception†centers, and with 2,400 beds, Dilley is the largest in the nation. ICE expanded the capacity of Dilley and other centers in response to the increased flow of children and families from Central America in recent years. Four legal advocacy organizations question the expansion’s legality, morality, and humanity, and have formed a consortium, the CARA Family Detention Project, which dispatches volunteer lawyers and paralegals to assist detained families.