In recent months, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has come under fire for treatment of immigrants it has arrested, and now public officials have raised concerns with agents in Texas who have been transporting detainees and abandoning them in other states.

Immigrants who are from Mexico and have been apprehended crossing the Rio Grand Valley are released back into Mexico. However, ICE agents who have captured immigrants from Central or South American countries have arranged for them to be taken to Arizona, New York or Maryland, where they are left. According to Fox News, the practice has been occurring more frequently because of the high cost of transporting the immigrants back to their home countries and a surge of people coming from Central and South America.

Even Arizona lawmakers, whose state experiences high amounts of immigrants attempting to cross annually, have come out against the agency's practice of shipping and abandoning including Republican candidate Scott Smith, who is vying for the governor seat in the upcoming gubernatorial race.

"What an astonishing failure of leadership at every level inside the Beltway," he said.

Last weekend, nearly 400 Central Americans, who had been caught by Texas agents and processed through immigration, were flown from Texas to Tucson, Arizona, before being shuttled off to Phoenix where they were met with volunteer nurses.

ICE said it did not want to incarcerate minors or split up families. After the deportation process nears completion, the immigrants are expected to return to Texas on their own accord as part of so-called honor system.

"After screening by (Department of Homeland Security) authorities, the family units will be released under supervision and required to report in to a local ICE office near their destination address within 15 days, where their cases will be managed in accordance with current ICE enforcement priorities," according to an ICE statement.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., blasted the practice in an interview with Reuters.

"This is a humanitarian crisis, and it requires a humanitarian response," she said.

The Rio Grande Valley has become a hot spot in recent years for immigrants to cross as border patrol agents have reported a substantial increase in apprehensions. In 2013, agents caught 154,453 immigrants with only 97,762 arrests the previous year, Fox reported.

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