The number of illegal Brazilian immigrants apprehended soared last summer but plunged more than 90 percent in the month after the strict detention and deportation policy started.

Ms. Chasse said a detention center in the Newark area was crucial because of the high number of illegal immigrants apprehended at the airport.

When it came to federal deportation proceedings, undocumented immigrants, once apprehended, had two options.

The people held in Esmor's New Jersey center are all illegal immigrants, mostly apprehended at the airports.

The number of non-Mexican immigrants apprehended during June and July, he said, dropped to the lowest level for that period since the fiscal year 2004.

He went on to cite numbers for illegal immigrants apprehended last year "that stagger."

Domestic security regulations require Border Patrol agents to ask all illegal immigrants apprehended if they fear being sent home.

In September, domestic security officials announced that they would detain and summarily deport illegal immigrants apprehended along the border with Mexico.

The company eventually paid the immigrants apprehended by immigration officials an undisclosed settlement.

In the first quarter of the 2006 fiscal year, nearly 60 percent of the illegal immigrants apprehended from countries other than Mexico were released on their own recognizance.