“A coalition of immigrants’ rights teams together with Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, the ACLU, the ACLU of Louisiana, Immigration Services & Legal Advocacy, and the National Immigration Project at the moment launched a new report documenting widespread abuse and inhumane remedy at 9 immigration detention services throughout Louisiana. Given the scope and severity of those findings, the taking part organizations name for an instantaneous and impartial investigation into the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) workplace liable for these abuses – the New Orleans ICE Subject Workplace.
The report cites qualitative and quantitative knowledge collected throughout 59 onsite jail visits from 2022 to 2024, together with info gathered throughout interviews with over 6,200 detained people and facility excursions. The findings reveal that immigration detention services beneath the jurisdiction of the New Orleans ICE Subject Workplace (NOLA ICE) routinely fail to adjust to ICE’s personal minimal requirements of care, along with violating federal and worldwide human rights legislation.
The abuses documented vary from using restrictive five-point shackles and extended solitary confinement to cockroach-infested meals and lack of entry to female hygiene merchandise. Detained people additionally reported bodily assault, sexual abuse, and denial of prescribed medicines for epilepsy and diabetes.
“These people have fled persecution and violence solely to be thrown in ‘civil’ detention and left to fend for themselves in an abusive, profit-driven, and manipulative system,” mentioned Sarah Decker, workers legal professional at Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights and one of many report’s main authors. “We’ve heard horrific tales during the last two years, tales which have been corroborated by in depth documentation. Our findings additional assist what detained individuals and their advocates have lengthy demanded: the NOLA ICE jails have to be shut down.”
Louisiana is among the largest hubs of immigrant detention within the nation, second solely to Texas.
The U.S. authorities detains over 6,000 individuals in Louisiana, a quantity that has skyrocketed lately because of Trump-era insurance policies and the rise of personal jail corporations, that are liable for 98% of immigrants detained in Louisiana. The state additionally has the one ICE jail within the U.S. straight linked to an airport. Because of this, people from throughout the nation are transported to and held within the NOLA ICE jails.
“For years, we have now been on the bottom in Louisiana’s detention services, a lot of that are in remoted rural areas, conducting Know Your Rights shows and offering authorized help to as many people as we are able to,” mentioned Andrew Perry, ACLU of Louisiana immigrant rights workers legal professional. “The situations in these services are inhumane, as this report reveals in heartbreaking element. The federal authorities has turned immigration detention right into a revenue machine on the expense of each asylum seekers and longtime residents of the USA. These services have to be shut down.”
“This report paperwork a protracted and haunting file of abuse and mistreatment at NOLA ICE jails, from substandard medical care, to bodily assault, to using solitary confinement — a follow confirmed to result in severe and lasting psychological harm,” mentioned Matt Vogel, Supervising Lawyer on the Nationwide Immigration Mission. “We urge officers to think about this file for what it’s: proof that NOLA ICE jails have to be shut down instantly to stop any additional abuse and struggling.”
“Our shoppers describe a system constructed on neglect and designed to create revenue for giant firms, the place primary human rights are systematically ignored,” mentioned Al Web page, Govt Director of ISLA. “All through the tales our shoppers and the previously detained people within the report share, the federal government constantly fails to fulfill the minimal requirements required to maintain these facilities open. The federal government have to be held accountable, and these services have to be shut down.”
“The situations at Winn Detention Middle are a profound injustice,” mentioned Sara Ajuli Louis-Ayo, Steering Committee Member of the Southeast Dignity Not Detention Coalition. “Folks escape their properties, stripped of dignity and fleeing persecution, solely to come across extra struggling of their seek for security. We should transfer past political issues and acknowledge these people by way of the lens of our widespread humanity. It’s crucial that we finish this inhumane remedy.”
This report is the newest growth in NOLA ICE’s lengthy and well-documented historical past of abuse. For years, authorities watchdog organizations and civil society have reported on the shortage of compliance with primary requirements of take care of individuals detained within the NOLA ICE jails. In 2021, the Division of Homeland Safety’s Workplace for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties took the unprecedented step of opening an investigation into the whole community of NOLA ICE jails, the first-ever field-office huge investigation. Regardless of the litany of proof, the federal government’s oversight system has failed to stop persistent systemic abuse and inhumane situations.”
