Palm Beach County considering push for immigration detention center
County officials also dispute concerns about jail expansion
Palm Beach County plans a renewed push to land a proposed federal immigration detention center once sought by Broward County backers, local officials said Tuesday.
Southwest Ranches in June fell out of the running for a 1,500-bed detention center planned for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Southwest Ranches in June fell out of the running for a 1,500-bed detention center planned for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Palm Beach County had been one of the past suitors for the detention center and the jobs and federal funding
it could bring. Now Palm Beach County officials say that they want to try again to land the detention center, which could move into empty jail facilities near West Palm Beach or Belle Glade.
That first means reaching out to federal officials to see if they are still looking for a new South Florida site.
A shuttered county "stockade" near the South Florida Fairgrounds, an empty building at the county's newly expanded jail facility in Belle Glade and a nearby former state prison that closed last year are among the potential spaces available to housing a federal detention center.
"It's job creation," County Administrator Robert Weisman said Tuesday. "We are open to anything."
The proposed $75 million, 1,500-bed facility once envisioned in Broward would have been more than double the size of the Krome Detention Center in west Miami-Dade County.
But public backlash from neighboring communities worried about the facility's affect on property values and other concerns helped scare off the federal government from picking Southwest Ranches for the new immigration detention center.
"We should show that we are at least interested," Palm Beach County Commissioner Priscilla Taylor said.
Palm Beach County's new push to land the federal detention center comes as the county nears completion on a $160 million initial phase of a jail expansion — a project that has drawn scrutiny for cost concerns, design problems and questions about the need as jail populations decline.
County commissioners on Tuesday received an update on jail expansion construction progress. Commissioners requested the update in response to a July 8 Sun Sentinel article detailing concerns about jail project miscalculations, faulty designs and questionable construction oversight.
The Sun Sentinel also reported that about 200 fewer jail beds were in operation than before the "expansion" began.
County Facilities Development and Operations Director Audrey Wolf on Tuesday acknowledged that "certainly there have been challenges with the jail expansion project," but she said that's typical of large-scale construction projects and that concerns highlighted by the Sun Sentinel were "sensationalized."
Wolf said the work has produced a "state-of-the-art facility" that she said the county "can be proud of."
But finishing the full-scale jail facilities expansion that was once envisioned remains on hold due to the cost and the tapering off of jail populations.
The shelved work includes future renovations and expansions at the main jail facility west of West Palm Beach and the now-shuttered "stockade" jail near the county fairgrounds.
it could bring. Now Palm Beach County officials say that they want to try again to land the detention center, which could move into empty jail facilities near West Palm Beach or Belle Glade.That first means reaching out to federal officials to see if they are still looking for a new South Florida site.
A shuttered county "stockade" near the South Florida Fairgrounds, an empty building at the county's newly expanded jail facility in Belle Glade and a nearby former state prison that closed last year are among the potential spaces available to housing a federal detention center.
"It's job creation," County Administrator Robert Weisman said Tuesday. "We are open to anything."
The proposed $75 million, 1,500-bed facility once envisioned in Broward would have been more than double the size of the Krome Detention Center in west Miami-Dade County.
But public backlash from neighboring communities worried about the facility's affect on property values
and other concerns helped scare off the federal government from picking Southwest Ranches for the new immigration detention center."We should show that we are at least interested," Palm Beach County Commissioner Priscilla Taylor said.
Palm Beach County's new push to land the federal detention center comes as the county nears completion on a $160 million initial phase of a jail expansion — a project that has drawn scrutiny for cost
concerns, design problems and questions about the need as jail populations decline.County commissioners on Tuesday received an update on jail expansion construction progress. Commissioners requested the update in response to a July 8 Sun Sentinel article detailing concerns about jail project miscalculations, faulty designs and questionable construction oversight.
The Sun Sentinel also reported that about 200
fewer jail beds were in operation than before the "expansion" began.County Facilities Development and Operations Director Audrey Wolf on Tuesday acknowledged that "certainly there have been challenges with the jail expansion project," but she said that's typical of large-scale construction projects and that concerns highlighted by the Sun Sentinel were "sensationalized."
Wolf said the work has produced a "state-of-the-art facility" that she said the county "can be proud of."
But finishing the full-scale jail facilities expansion that was once envisioned remains on hold due to the cost and the tapering off of jail populations.
The shelved work includes future
renovations and expansions at the main jail facility west of West Palm Beach and the now-shuttered "stockade" jail near the county fairgrounds.
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