Raymondville: Inside the Largest Immigration Prison Camp in the US

The number of undocumented immigrants currently imprisoned in the United States has reached a record of more than twenty six thousand people. To keep pace with the increasing number of detainees, the government is rapidly expanding its federal immigration detention system. The largest immigrant prison camp is in Raymondville, Texas - in the remote southern tip of the state. Some two thousand undocumented immigrants are currently being held in the prison awaiting deportation. The $65 million jail was built last summer by the Management Training Corporation.

The Washington Post describes the Raymondville facility as a “futuristic tent city...made of Kevlar-like material” without windows and ringed by barbed wire. Many of those being held there say they have insufficient food, clothing, medical care and access to the outside world.

Jodi Goodwin is an immigration lawyer from Harlingen, Texas. About 20 miles from the Raymondville prison. She represents a number of immigrants being held there. She joins us on the line from Houston.

* Jodi Goodwin. Immigration lawyer from Harlingen, Texas. She represents immigrants held at Raymondville.

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