RAYMONDVILLE – A Raymondville business owner says the reopening of a nearby prison couldn’t have come at a better time.

He says losing the facility and its staff more than two years ago was devastating for the Mexican restaurant he’s been running in the last 15 years.

“With the prison, we lost 400. Not all of them was from here but a bunch of them were,” he says, “and I used to have a lot more business.”

Willacy County Sheriff Larry Spence says an agreement with the prison’s owner will give a boost to nearby businesses and even the sheriff’s department.

On Wednesday, Management and Training Corporation announced they had secured a contract with a federal agency to operate the El Valle Detention Facility.

KRGV’s Frank McCaffrey reached out U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for more information. ICE officials have yet to respond.

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