Immigration Reform 2014: Texas Is Speeding Up Deportations of Unaccompanied Minors and Not Sharing the Info With Reporters

Following a record number of unaccompanied minors travelling over the U.S. Mexico Border in the past year, the government has taken action to speed up the process of deportation, reports say. In addition to that, some journalists are saying that the government is making it difficult to report on the process, which may even deprive some recent immigrants of their due process rights.

It's being considered a move the government is justifying, after more than 50,000 children have come over the south Texas border from Central America. Laws enacted by the Obama administration in the last 5 years have made it easier for children from countries in Central America to make bids to stay by saying they are seeking asylum.

In Artesia, N.M., there's an immigration court center that's part of the "growing controversy over the U.S. government's efforts to speed the deportation of families who crossed the border in the recent surge of immigration from Central America," reports the Houston Chronicle.

The report says that critics of the Customs and Immigration Enforcement tactics say that the due process of migrants is being ignored, even calling the New Mexico center a "deportation factory".

"If you come here illegally, and don't have a legal basis to stay under our laws, we will send you back," Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson.

More than 200 people have been deported, including parents and children since that center opened. A new deportation center is opening near San Antonio, Texas.

One of the problems in covering the new move to deport recent immigrants faster, however, is that the government won't allow journalists a closer look. According to the Columbia Journalism Review, immigration officials are mounting "an energetic publicity campaign while shutting off access to the detention facilities and placing migrants' court hearings beyond the scrutiny of the press."

Reporters weren't allowed into immigration courtrooms in New Mexico. Instead, they had to watch the open proceedings on video from Virginia. The reason for the hesitation on the government's part, according to the story, could be that previous reports about the handling of the wave of immigrants has been less than positive, with reports of disease outbreaks at immigration facilities, to other factors of what one report called the "hurry up and deport" approach.