Texas Prison Bid'ness

Raymondville ICE Detention CenterThe Brownsville Herald is reporting that there will be a 1,000 bed expansion to the Raymondville MTC ICE Detention Center. The prison, which is made of windowless Kevlar tents, already incarcerates up to 2,000 immigrants at a time, making it one of the largest immigrant detention centers in the country.

As the Texas Observer reported and we covered here, Raymondville already has a long a troubled history with private prisons that includes county commissioners pleading guilty to bribery charges in a private prison case and a $47.5 million settlement against a Raymondville Wackenhut (now GEO Group) prison by the family of a prisoner who was beaten to death.

The prison was also hit last month with a 75-person strong protest, an event that was covered by the Valley-based blog Tent City.