The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is building a new migrant holding facility adjacent to the airport in Alexandria, Louisiana, which is the country's busiest deportation flight hub. The 528-bed facility will be used to house families and unaccompanied children ahead of their deportation flights.
A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson said the facility is not a detention center but a 'holding area' for deportation processing. 'England Airpark is a holding facility for deportation processing. Illegal immigrants wait here for their deportation flights or transfer to a detention facility,' the spokesperson said.
Alexandria International Airport became the largest deportation hub in the U.S. last year, hosting more than 4,400 immigration flights. According to Human Rights First's ICE Flight Monitor data, all of these flights were related to deporting migrants.
Private prison company to operate
The new facility will be operated by LaSalle Family Foundation, the nonprofit arm of private prison operator LaSalle Corrections. England Airpark Executive Director Ralph Hennessy said the facility could become operational next month. 'These are people who are voluntarily returning home, and they are going back as a family unit,' Hennessy said.
According to the Associated Press, families and children at the facility will be 'under ICE's legal custody' and can only be released at ICE's direction. ICE documents include instructions not to use restraints or cages when transporting families and unaccompanied children. Additionally, the facility will not be required to take roll call, and families will be allowed to wear their own clothes.
History of violations
LaSalle Corrections operates several private prisons and federal immigration detention centers in southern states, including the 'Louisiana Lockup' at the Angola maximum-security prison in Louisiana. Since April, two migrant deaths have been reported at an ICE facility run by the company. The Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General also found standard violations last month at the Winn Correctional Center in areas such as environmental health, safety, food service, use of force, and medical care.
Unaccompanied children are normally not taken to ICE-supervised facilities and are placed in state-licensed shelters and foster care programs run by the Office of Refugee Resettlement under the Department of Health and Human Services. However, airport officials said that agency is not involved in the operation of the new facility.
