For-profit prisons benefit from minimum occupancy quotas at immigrant detention facilities throughout the nation, according to government documents, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and released in a report late last week. Minimum quotas guarantee that the government pays for thousands of detainees regardless if those spots are filled or not.

According to the research conducted by the Detention Watch Network (DWN) and the Center for Constitutional Rights, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had to pay for more than 3,000 immigrants at five detention facilities in Texas as the state experienced the recent wave of undocumented immigrants crossing its border with Mexico.

The ICE detention statistics for Texas indicate that the government did not pay for empty beds in that particular case but instead showed that several ICE facilities in the state exceed their minimum occupancy, on average -- and in some cases, Texas detention centers locked up more than double the minimum quota. According to the report, Port Isabel Detention Center held an average of 1,000 people, above its quota of 800, while the South Texas Detention Complex in Pearsall had 1,700 detainees. Its minimum quota is 725.

In its report, DWN argues, "ICE faces substantial pressure to funnel immigrants into detention in order to keep beds filled."

In addition to the national quota of 34,000 total beds available for ICE detention, mandated by Congress to the Department of Homeland Security in 2009, many ICE facilities are additionally bound by local minimum quotas -- whose details were found in the labyrinthine assemblage of contracts between state and local governments and the for-profit prison contractors that maintain many ICE facilities.

The DWN report on ICE detention quotas comes after the Government Accountability Office criticized ICE's "inefficient" handling of guaranteed minimum occupancy facilities in October -- and at a time when some in Congress are pushing to reform the system.

"Anyone who signs a contract and is guaranteed a minimum number every single night is going to fight to keep those numbers in place," said U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, a critic of the practice, to The Associated Press. "And it only perpetuates a terrible, wasteful, inhumane policy.

"For the federal government to contractually guarantee a certain number of immigrant detainees per day violates best practices in law enforcement and is an affront to our entire conception of justice in America," said Deutch to Detention Watch Network on the release of its report.

The Florida Democrat said he's working to end the practice through legislation that he plans to introduce next week. He advocates for other methods of tracking immigrants, outside of detaining and holding them in ICE facilities, such as using electronic ankle bracelets or supervised release programs. Such alternatives, he argues, are cost-effective compared to holding detainees in custody for long periods of time. Deutch stated that ICE spends $2 billion annually on detention, noting that guaranteed-minimum quotas are "being felt at the local level."

Yet, ICE spokeswoman Jennifer Elzea said guaranteed minimum quotas are common and "allow the agency to procure beds at a reduced rate while giving the contractor the ability to predict the number of detainees held on a regular basis."

Recently though, the total number of ICE detainees has dropped, with the average daily detention population falling more than 7,000 below the national minimum capacity quota for ICE facilities. However, the agency is still responsible to its congressional mandate to maintain the unused difference.

Meanwhile, ICE detention continues to generate controversy outside of budgetary policy. This weekend, hundreds of detained immigrants put on a hunger strike at the Eloy Detention Center in Arizona, although ICE denied that the strike ever happened, according to AZ Central.

More than 200 immigrants reportedly announced their hunger strike on Saturday, while about 80 supporters rallied outside of the prison. Detainees demanded better living conditions and greater access to legal resources following two suspicious deaths that happened in the facility.

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