A lawyer helping Central American immigrants housed at a temporary center in southern New Mexico has compared the facility to the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Attorney Pamela Muñoz says that like prisoners at Guantanamo, the immigrants at the center in Artesia, New Mexico, are in a legal limbo, without formal charges and without due process.
A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman says the facility and other similar ones operate in an open environment, which includes play rooms, social workers and access to legal counsel.
Officials say the New Mexico center housed 532 people as of Thursday.
The immigrants are part of the more than 57,000 unaccompanied children who have come to the U.S. in the last few months.
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Information from: El Paso Times, http://www.elpasotimes.com
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