There’s several laws and other such things such as Reno vs. Flores that dictate how long people can be held in custody and what type of arrangements/accommodations must be made.
If .gov isn’t able to adhere to those rules, they have no choice except to release the detainees with notices to appear and such.
“Bed space” is generally a generic term to essentially say that .gov wasn’t able to deport someone fast enough and also wasn’t able to adhere to the laws/rules/court cases and had to release detainees.
Unfortunately, the only answers are:
- Increase space (temporary things like tents can work for adults, but courts are pretty strict on children and such). This takes years of construction
- Deport faster. Obviously takes more planes and other such resources.
- Change the law or have the court rulings overturned. These are very long standing laws and such, so that’s a lengthy process as well.
It would likely be a good idea for this Administration to push for the construction of larger detention facilities. This would allow the next Republican Administration (whenever that may be, the next term, or some term/s down the road) the ability to house more detainees without having to release them. And unless the construction is already in place, no Democrat Administration is going to increase holding facilities. So, if they don’t start changing that now, we’ll be in the exact same spot on subsequent administrations when they want to crack down on immigration.