BY DAN GOODING
Migrants detained by ICE have effectively "disappeared" when sent to detention centers in Louisiana, where they face abuse and are cut-off from legal aid, a new report has claimed.
A group of immigrants' rights groups said they had spoken to over 6,000 migrants in the past two years, who alleged extended periods in solitary confinement, sexual assault and retaliation from staff if they spoke up.
Trump administration policies and an emptying of jails in the state saw the sites, all over 100 miles from the closest urban center, given over to immigrant detention.
The report explained that detainees, some long-time U.S. residents, were effectively "disappeared" because centers were so far from their loved ones and attorneys that visits, and even contact, were near impossible.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) denied the allegations made by Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights (RFKHR), the ACLU and others.
Sarah Decker at RFKHR told Newsweek Monday, "Keeping these jails in such isolated pockets of rural Louisiana keeps people far away from their families, their advocates, their networks of community support.
"It allows these abuses to go on with almost total impunity and the only reason we even found out about the vast majority of these abuses was because we were able to physically go inside the jails and meet with people on a regular basis."
The groups started going to the nine facilities linked to the New Orleans ICE Field Office in 2022 to provide legal advice and noticed signs of abuse.
Over 59 visits followed, with advocates interviewing over 6,000 detainees, who struggle to access immigration attorneys, due to their remote locations.
Decker said that many of those held in Louisiana came from outside the state, including as far as California and New York.
"In Louisiana the landscape of service providers is really limited," Decker added. "So really there's only one service provider that provides pro bono legal services in the region.
"They have about 12 immigration attorneys and their covering a region that has over 6,000 people detained, the vast majority who are pro-se, don't have attorneys and can't afford to pay a private attorney."
Migrants felt safer being deported than staying in U.S.
One migrant whose story is told in the report is Daniel's. He arrived in the U.S. aged 7, married an American citizen and had two children, but was detained by immigration in his early thirties.
Daniel also had epilepsy and had a seizure while in detention at the Central Louisiana Ice Processing Center.
He was returned to the facility and took part in a hunger strike over the living conditions at the site.
A month after his first hospital visit, Daniel was treated for his seizures, but alleges he was held down while medical personnel injected him and drilled into his bone, without anesthesia, to administer medication.
"Whenever I close my eyes, I relive the incidents. . . It has become a trauma for me.
"I am afraid to go back to the hospital. I don't want to go back to that torture chamber."
Decker said Daniel's ordeal, which included further suicide attempts, led him to give up on his immigration case and ask for deportation in November 2023, cutting him off from his wife and children.
Louisiana is a 'black hole' where migrants disappear.
His is one of a few stories openly shared in the report, with hundreds of others remaining anonymous out of a fear of retaliation.
Other claims in Louisiana include cockroach-infested foods, a lack of feminine hygiene products, and long periods of solitary confinement in retaliation when detainees spoke out about other issues.
"We see Louisiana as this black hole where people are transported and disappeared, and because they're unable to access legal resources, they're facing significant barriers and due process and are actually unable to adequately represent themselves in their cases for protection," Decker explained.
The report also lays out allegations that ICE detention centers are set up to maximize profit for the companies running them.
In many cases, migrants speak little to no English, but translation services were frequently withheld or inadequate, the report alleged.
ICE promises 'multi-layered' oversight of centers.
A spokesperson for ICE told Newsweek: "ICE ERO is firmly committed to the health and welfare of all those in its custody," the spokesperson said.
"The agency continuously reviews and enhances civil detention operations to ensure noncitizens are treated humanely, protected from harm, provided appropriate medical and mental health care, and receive the rights and protections to which they are entitled."
Among those protections were comprehensive medical care and access to mental health screenings.
The spokesperson also said that it was using "multi-layered inspections, standards, and an oversight program" to continuously review its detention centers.
GEO Group, which runs four of the nine sites, did deny the allegations.
"GEO categorically denies the claims being alleged by politically motivated groups who have a long history of making such claims for the purpose of ending immigration detention and stands by our provision of contract compliant support services in accordance with all established federal standards," a spokesperson told Newsweek.
Another center is run by Allen Parish Sheriff's Office - namely the Allen Parish Public Safety Complex - at which officers reportedly threw food at detainees, denied some access to medical treatments and placed others in long-term solitary confinement.
"The Allen Paish Sheriff facility maintains the highest ethical standards and treatment of detainees in its custody," a spokesperson told Newsweek, while distancing the office from the others listed in the report. "Any suggestions otherwise are patently erroneous."
LaSalle Corrections, which runs the other sites named in the report, could not be reached.
The groups behind the report want an independent investigation and want to see the federal government put less emphasis on detention, especially for vulnerable individuals, while cases are processing.
"The conditions in these facilities are inhumane, as this report shows in heartbreaking detail," Andrew Perry, ACLU of Louisiana immigrant rights staff attorney, said in a press release.
"The federal government has turned immigration detention into a profit machine at the expense of both asylum seekers and longtime residents of the United States. These facilities must be shut down."
