Transfer to Livingston, TX

Immigrants who are detained are often in transit from one location to another, many times unable to communicate to friends and family that they are being moved.  In January of this year, Arcadio was relocated from Houston to Livingston, Texas where he continued to track his asylum case and also talk with Guatemalans and Hondurans who had fled from the violence in their communities.

In the Immigration bill passed in 2007 contained a provision to increase the construction of more prison facilities for immigrants, and several of these facilities are located in Texas.  Such prison communities are staffed by different levels of government, including the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) (formerly the INS), which is the largest division of the Department of Homeland Security.  ICE acts in several roles, including their important work against human trafficking, as well as overseeing detained immigrants and the deportation process.