Firm to Close Besieged Alien Holding Center

A privately run detention center for illegal alien families that came under fire when it opened in a Hollywood residential area last year will close its doors Friday, its owner and Immigration and Naturalization Service officials said Wednesday.

An expected decline in the number of families picked up in INS sweeps--the result of the immigration reform bill recently passed by Congress--and continuing conflicts between the operator and Los Angeles city officials prompted the decision to close the facility, they said.

About 40 suspected illegal aliens housed in the center will be transferred to four other facilities in California and Nevada by Friday, according to Don Looney, assistant INS regional commissioner for detention and deportation.

“It worked out to be mutually beneficial,” Looney said

The center, which at its peak housed 120 people, opened Dec. 31 in the former Americana Motel on DeLongpre Avenue. Almost immediately, residents of the area criticized the placement of the facility, which had barred windows and was surrounded by a barbed-wire-topped fence.

Los Angeles city officials quickly joined the fray, citing Behavioral Systems Southwest Inc., the Pomona-based private operator under contract to the INS, for violating numerous city building and safety codes.

The firm was forced to remove concertina wire from the top of the building and to unlock the facility’s gates to ensure that detainees could escape in the event of a fire, Behavior Systems’ President Ted Nissen said Friday.

“We thought that we had met all the standards,” he said.

But several weeks ago, the city attorney’s office filed a misdemeanor complaint against the firm in Los Angeles Municipal Court, alleging that the detention center violated zoning restrictions and that its operators had never received a required city certificate of occupancy.

Nissen said he informed INS officials early this month that because of the continuing dispute with Los Angeles officials, he decided against renewing the center’s contract when it runs out Sunday.

Simultaneously, INS officials had determined that the new immigration reform bill would limit the number of families detained while awaiting deportation hearings and the Hollywood site is not needed, Looney said.

The INS runs detention facilities in Inglewood, El Centro, San Diego and Las Vegas, where detainees housed in Hollywood will be transferred.

“We’re hoping that with the reduced numbers of apprehensions they can handle it,” Looney said.

In addition, within 18 months, the INS headquarters on Terminal Island will be converted to a detention facility capable of holding 400 suspected aliens, he said.

The immigration bill provides amnesty to undocumented aliens who have resided in the United States since before 1982. Looney said the INS expects that the number of families with children actually deported will decline because many will fall under the amnesty program.

The city attorney’s office, meanwhile, said the misdemeanor complaint against Behavioral Systems Southwest will stand until it is clear what the firm intends to do with the former motel. “We’re reserving the final decision,” said Deputy City Atty. Charles Goldenberg.

Nissen said the firm has no idea what it will do with the property. “Know anyone who wants to rent an apartment?” he joked.