ICE to Close Detention Center in Artesia, New Mexico; Normal Operations at Denver Immigration Court Likely to Resume in January

Contributed by Kim Tremblay, Associate Attorney

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced today that it would close its detention center in Artesia, New Mexico.  Since June, ICE has been detaining migrant adults found with their children near the border at this facility.  The migrants are detained while the immigration court processes their cases.  ICE will move the detainees to another facility in Dilley, Texas sometime in December.

Two immigration court judges in Denver had been conducting hearings for the Artesia detainees via video conference since September.  Their regular dockets were cancelled and cases were taken off the calendar indefinitely on a rolling basis, about three weeks in advance.  Now that the detention center in Artesia is closing, the Denver immigration court is likely to resume its regular operations in January and to reschedule cases with cancelled hearing dates.  This remains to be confirmed.