Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced in September that it would turn a detention center just outside of San Antonio back into a family residential center “in the near future.” The Karnes County Residential Center, a private facility run by the GEO Group, began exclusively housing adult women in April. The facility came under scrutiny after allegations that detainees at Karnes, which was largely designed for short-term family detentions, were being denied medical care.
As the facility prepared to take families again, chaos ensued. Following the September 20 announcement, reports emerged suggesting women at Karnes were being transferred to other detention centers as far as Mississippi or Louisiana. In certain cases, it appeared lawyers were not able to locate their clients.
According to an ICE spokesperson, as many as 856 women have been transferred from Karnes, which has the capacity to hold 830 people, to make space for families. That potentially hundreds of women could not be accounted for is troublesome enough. But in the days and even weeks after the transfer, lawyers representing those women, many of whom have fled gender-based violence, say the situation only worsened: clients have had their court dates moved around or even cancelled; those who might have already been released on bond are facing additional time in detention; and some cases are being assigned to less sympathetic immigration judges from other jurisdictions.
