TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — For about four years CBP has operated a large temporary facility out along Los Reales to house immigrants and in some cases prepare them for deportation. Now the building’s closing and it’s coming down because CBP says it doesn’t need it anymore.
Just a few weeks ago what CBP called a soft-sided facility was a staging area for deportees. Agents bused them the short distance to Tucson International, put them on military cargo planes and flew them to Guatemala.
CBP opened the facility in the Spring of 2021 and expanded it two years later. Much of the emphasis was to provide a suitable place for children.
One section was for families with children. The other part was for individual men.
The design of a large building with tough, flexible plastic walls was modified from housing for troops in places like Afghanistan.
Now CBP says arrests and detentions have had such a steep drop that it can house everyone it needs to in conventional buildings.
A CBP statement says in part: “Due to the unprecedented drop in apprehensions of illegal aliens as a result of the President’s recent executive actions, CBP is reducing the number of temporary, soft-sided processing facilities where illegal aliens have been held in specific locations along the southwest border."
CBP says savings from closing the soft-sided facilities will range from five to thirty million dollars, per location, per month.