Abuse and inhumane treatment reported at nine immigration detention centers in Louisiana

Nine immigration detention centers in Louisiana routinely fail to meet minimum standards of care, allowing for widespread abuse and inhumane treatment of inmates, according to an investigation released Monday by a coalition of civil rights groups.

The investigation, led by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and which analyzed data obtained during 59 visits to detention centers between 2022 and 2024, found that the centers may be violating federal and human rights laws.

Detained immigrants reported physical assault, sexual abuse, denial of prescription medication for epilepsy and diabetes, and lack of access to feminine hygiene products, among other things.

The report, based on interviews with more than 6,200 detainees, documents abuses such as the use of shackles in prison, prolonged isolation and cockroach-infested food at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities, 98 percent of which are run by private companies.

Reality

Louisiana is one of the states with the largest number of immigration detention centers in the country, second only to Texas, with more than 6,000 immigrants. Most of the jails are located in rural areas, which keeps detainees away from lawyers and their families.

Louisiana also has the only ICE prison in the United States directly connected to an airport.

“We have heard horrific stories that have been corroborated by extensive documentation. Our findings further support what detainees and their advocates have long demanded: Louisiana’s ICE jails must be closed,” said Sarah Decker, co-author of the report and an attorney with Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, one of the organizations that took part in the investigation, in a statement.

Complaint

For his part, Andrew Perry, an attorney with the ACLU of Louisiana, believes that the federal government has turned immigration detention into “a profit machine” at the expense of both asylum seekers and long-term residents of the United States.

The lawyer insisted that “these facilities must be closed.”

The report, which was also co-authored by Immigration Services & Legal Advocacy (ISLA) and the National Immigration Project, highlighted that in 2021, the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties took the unprecedented step of opening an investigation into the entire ICE prison network in the New Orleans sector, which includes those in Louisiana, the first in history.

Louisiana / EFE