September 27, 2018

Eloy Pulls Plug On Part Of ICE Contract

The city ended part of a contract allowing ICE to run an immigrant detention center in Texas.

ICE Immigration and Customs Enforcement hero
Immigration and Customs Enforcement

The city of Eloy has ended part of a contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that allowed the federal agency to run an immigrant detention center in Texas, and the city manager says ICE asked Eloy to pull the plug on the deal.

The deal between ICE and Eloy paid the city about $438,000 a year.

“(I) would rather not lose the revenue, but I understand,” said Harvey Krauss, Eloy’s city manager. “It was always intended to be temporary.”

ICE is going start a new contract with the city of Dilley, Texas, where the immigrant family detention center is located, Krauss said.

A lawyer for a Guatemalan woman recently threatened a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Eloy, alleging that repeated requests to get her daughter intensive medical treatment, while they were held in the Texas facility, went nowhere.

Krauss said he doesn’t think that’s why ICE asked the Eloy to end the deal.

An ICE spokeswoman said in an email that to maintain the integrity of the process, the agency does not talk about contracts that may be in negotiation.

Fronteras Desk
This story is from the Fronteras Desk, a collaboration of Southwestern public radio stations, including NPR 89.1. Read more from the Fronteras Desk.
By posting comments, you agree to our
AZPM encourages comments, but comments that contain profanity, unrelated information, threats, libel, defamatory statements, obscenities, pornography or that violate the law are not allowed. Comments that promote commercial products or services are not allowed. Comments in violation of this policy will be removed. Continued posting of comments that violate this policy will result in the commenter being banned from the site.

By submitting your comments, you hereby give AZPM the right to post your comments and potentially use them in any other form of media operated by this institution.
AZPM is a service of the University of Arizona and our broadcast stations are licensed to the Arizona Board of Regents who hold the trademarks for Arizona Public Media and AZPM. We respectfully acknowledge the University of Arizona is on the land and territories of Indigenous peoples.
The University of Arizona