New ICE facility could speed up deportations for families and children

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Trump administration plans to open a 528-bed detention facility for migrant families and unaccompanied children next to the airport hub, putting it in a position to speed up deportations.

The location in Alexandria, Louisiana, would eliminate the logistical headache of wrangling children from foster homes and shelters across the country and having nowhere to put them during final flight preparations. These obstacles were evident last year when Guatemalan children were woken up at night and given almost no time to reach Harlingen, Texas, where they waited on the tarmac for hours.

A federal judge blocked their deportation, but the chaotic incident highlighted the challenges authorities face because they have nowhere to put families and children near the airport. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement describes the Alexandria facility as a “staging area,” not a detention center, and says people will only stay there for a few days at most.

However, many immigration advocates expressed concern that children could be detained at the new facility for weeks or months, as has happened at other federal immigration detention sites. These advocates also worry about oversight, and say the facility represents a departure from the way the government manages these children.

“It expands the deportation system in ways we have never seen before,” said Lecia Welch, senior legal counsel at the nonprofit Children’s Rights. “There’s a lot that could go wrong at this facility.”

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has hired a private prison company to manage the deportation facility

Unaccompanied children who are in the United States without parents or close relatives are not transferred to ICE-supervised facilities. Instead, the law says they must be quickly placed in the care of state-licensed shelters and foster care programs.

It is administered by the Office of Refugee Resettlement in the Department of Health and Human Services. However, that agency is not involved in operating the Alexandria facility, according to a spokesman for the airport where it is being built.

Instead, the facility will be managed by a nonprofit arm of LaSalle Corrections, a private prison contractor, according to Ralph Hennessy, executive director of the ECA. He said it could be operational as early as August.

ICE officials signed a contract late last month to build the facility at the former military base near Alexandria International Airport, about 175 miles (280 kilometers) northwest of New Orleans, Hennessey said.

It will serve as a 72-hour detention center for immigrants awaiting deportation, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.

Compass Connections, a Texas-based nonprofit that runs shelters for unaccompanied migrant children, was tapped to help operate the facility and laid out plans during a public presentation in February.

But the company’s president, Sonia Thompson, told the AP last week that she was no longer involved. She did not explain that.

Officials said the facility is intended for families “self-deporting.”

At public board meetings, airport officials said the facility represents a “humanitarian effort” for families who are “self-deporting.” Immigration advocates say families and unaccompanied children sometimes make this decision under pressure or because they don’t understand their options.

“These are people who volunteer to return home and return home as a family unit,” Hennessy told the AP.

The facility will be located next to the country’s largest deportation center. More than 4,400 immigration enforcement flights entered and departed from Alexandria International Airport in 2025, according to data from ICE Flight Monitor, an initiative of Human Rights First. ICE’s planning documents say families and children at the facility are “lawfully detained by ICE and can only be released at the direction of ICE.”

The agency instructed contractors that families at the facility could not be referred to as prisoners, detainees or inmates, records show. The agency ordered contractors not to use bars or cages when transporting families and unaccompanied children. The agency added that the facility will not be required to participate in the headcount and must allow families to “wear their own clothing.”

The private prison company operates other ICE detention centers

Louisiana-based LaSalle Corrections runs a group of private prisons and federal immigration detention centers across the South, including a “Louisiana Prison” inside the maximum-security state prison at Angola.

The official contractor for ICE’s new holding facility will be the company’s nonprofit arm, the LaSalle Family Foundation. According to its tax records, the nonprofit provides chaplaincy services and educational programs in correctional facilities.

However, LaSalle Corrections itself will be involved in operating the holding facility and ensuring compliance, the company’s chief financial officer, Tim Korpiewski, wrote in an email reviewed by the AP.

LaSalle spokesman Scott Sutterfield declined to comment.

Two detainees have been reported dead since April at a LaSalle-run ICE facility in the state.

The Wayne Correctional Center was also found in June to have violated standards governing environmental health and safety, food services, use of force, medical care and other topics, according to the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General.