San Diego County approves immigrant prison

SAN DIEGO, May 26 (UPI) -- Local officials in the San Diego area have approved a private company's plans for a prison to house more than 2,000 illegal immigrants.

The 40-acre site on Otay Mesa is close to a San Diego County prison and to the San Diego Correctional Facility, which Corrections Corp. of America already operates under contract to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

CCA's plans call for 1,488 beds in the first phase of the new facility and 684 in the second, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported Tuesday. The existing immigrant detention center holds 700 people. The county planning commission approved the plans last month, the newspaper said.

The existing CCA facility is on land with a lease that expires in 2015. The company has bought the site for the new prison.

"In order to retain federal inmate populations we currently manage in the San Diego Correctional Facility, we may be required to construct a new facility in the future," the company said in a report.