La Salle Detention Facility (link below)

What's The Deal With Louisiana And ICE?

I won't link to the horrendous video of ICE kidnapping a Fullbright Scholar in broad daylight in Mass., today. They whisked her close to 2,000 miles away to Louisiana.

I saw some folks wondering why this U.S. destination in particular, and knew the answer, and decided to share it more broadly and in more detail than social media allows. There are links to some heart wrenching reports and exposés at the end of this post.

ICE's practice of transferring students and other detainees from the Northeast to Louisiana is driven by several factors.

Louisiana has become a major hub for immigration detention, second only to Texas in the number of ICE detainees. The state experienced a surge in immigration detention capacity following criminal justice reforms in 2017 that left many local jails empty. This created an opportunity for ICE to contract with private prison companies and local sheriffs to use these facilities, often at lower costs than in other parts of the country.

Practically speaking, transferring detainees to remote facilities in Louisiana serves to:

  1. Isolate detainees from legal representation and support networks
  2. Make it difficult for families and attorneys to visit
  3. Potentially deter further immigration by creating harsh conditions

The Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center (Apple Maps), where some detainees like Mahmoud Khalil are held, has several features that make it appealing to ICE:

  1. Large capacity (1,160 beds)
  2. Run by private companies like GEO Group, which claim to offer cost-effective services
  3. Located in remote areas, away from urban centers and scrutiny
  4. Equipped with on-site administrative buildings for ICE and immigration courts

However, it's important to note that these facilities have been criticized for:

The preference for Louisiana facilities appears to be driven more by practical and political considerations than by any inherent superiority of the detention centers themselves. In fact, numerous reports indicate serious concerns about the treatment of detainees in these facilities.

If you can stand some truly soul-crushing information, the ACLU (along with a few other groups) published "Inside The Black Hole Systemic Human Rights Abuses Against Immigrants Detained & Disappeared In Louisiana" back in 2024 that goes into even more stark detail as to what these humans face when brought to one of these American gulags.

PBS NewsHour also did a major segment — "ICE detentions bring profits to Louisiana, but at what cost?" — back in 2019.

Our government is acting like third-world thugs. Right now, they've found a convenient "other". But, make no mistake, it's only a matter of time before they come for "real" Americans.