Immigrants being held in Texas prison

Governor Abbot really hates illegal immigrants. In May, he declared the illegal immigrant situation in Texas a disaster. He has siphoned 250 million dollars allocated to prisons to an initiative to continue building a border wall.

On Tuesday, the situation took a new turn. 3 immigrants were arrested in Del Rio, on the border, and were sent to the TDCJ Briscoe Unit in Dilley. This number is expected to rise daily. Recently Abbott sent 1000 DPS officers – about 1/3 of the total number of Texas DPS officers – to the border. They are arresting illegal immigrants on charges such as criminal trespass and criminal mischief when they cross over the river onto somebody’s private property. These misdemeanor charges can carry a sentence of up to a year in jail.

It is expected that the number of arrests will increase rapidly. The plan, if it can be called that, is to hold the detained immigrants in the Briscoe Unit prison until they have their day in court. They will then likely be offered a sentence of “time served” and then handed off to Immigration to be deported.

There are some surprising issues with the plan. First off, a person charged with a misdemeanor is meant to be held in jail, not in prison. They are not guilty until proven so, of course, and at any rate, a misdemeanor charge doesn’t warrant prison time.

Now, most Texas prisons do not meet the criteria for a jail. For instance, jails in Texas are mandated to maintain the temperature at 85 or below. Texas prisons have no such mandate, and prisons without any air conditioning in housing areas are the norm. Unbearable summer temperatures are a dangerous reality for those incarcerated and have been the subject of many reports, complaints, and ongoing trauma for those incarcerated.

To meet the jail criteria, one building at the Briscoe unit has been air-conditioned, using generators to push cooled air through existing ductwork. Additionally, prison guards are not the same as jailers. The prison guards at Briscoe have been temporarily licensed as Texas jailers to fulfill this requirement.

This entire situation raises so many alarms and questions. The Texas prison system is already understaffed and underfunded. Designating prison funds and prison employees to carry out Abbott’s attempt to slow illegal immigrants from entering Texas is robbing Peter to pay Paul. Regardless of anyone’s opinion on illegal immigration issues, on the border wall, or on how illegal immigrants should be treated upon detention in the U.S., Texas prisons and their populations do NOT deserve to lose resources towards this initiative.

I’m just an ex-con, a branded felon, or whatever you want to call me, but I know that this plan is not sustainable or sensible. I also know that it makes zero sense to temporarily air-condition a prison that has housed prisoners since 1992 so that it is acceptable to house jailed immigrants. Most of the TDC inmates incarcerated in the Briscoe Unit were low-level offenders. That means a LOT of them are in prison for non-violent offenses such as drug possession. Even for higher-level offenders, how does Texas draw a line between who deserves humane conditions and who doesn’t?

Prison reform, people. Prison reform. It’s very badly needed across the U.S., and especially in Texas. Stay cool out there, if you can. Peace ~ Magnum