"Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free. AND WE'LL LOCK THEM UP."

it's an ugly business and, to all intents and purposes, completely below the media radar...

Thanks to the DHS' Operation Reservation Guaranteed, the number of immigrants in detention has risen from 18,000 when the operation was launched in July 2006, to 25,000 by the end of September. President Bush's budget for 2007 includes funds to increase detention bed space by 25 percent.

Facilities are going up faster than one can imagine. Last June a 2,000-bed detention center was approved for Raymondville, Texas, 45 miles from my office. I thought it would take a couple years to build, but I was wrong. By August 3, 2006, the facility was up and running. It¹s now at or very near its 2,000-bed capacity.

Texas seems to be the ideal place for detention centers. In 2005 a new facility opened in Pearsall, with space for 1,200. The center in Los Fresnos was recently expanded from 800 to 1,200 beds. Hutto, Texas is home to a new family detention center where DHS can hold people who have been apprehended with their children. If you¹ve never heard of these places, there¹s a reason.

Immigration detention is big business. Many detention centers are operated by for-profit companies. The federal government pays the companies, which in turn often pay the counties. Since Texas has plenty of poor rural counties with cheap real estate, it's not surprising that thousands of immigrants are detained here. But Texas isn't alone. There are immigrant detention facilities nationwide, including county jails, holding thousands.

While the federal government spends millions to jail immigrants, the other costs are far more troublesome. Families that lose the main breadwinner may have to seek public assistance such as food stamps or welfare. Some people lose their homes or are evicted after falling behind on mortgage or rent. Employers lose valuable workers and productivity decreases. Children of detained single parents may end up in foster care.

after all, they're only poor, illegal immigrants, and we've got more important things to worry about, right...?

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