NEW ORLEANS —As part of its ongoing Immigrant Rights Project (IRP), the ACLU of Louisiana has launched a new monthly blog series that seeks to educate the nation about the hard truths surrounding immigration detention in Louisiana.
The blog series will tell the stories of individuals secreted away in nearly a dozen rural detention centers across Louisiana and document insights and experiences from the affiliate’s trips to these facilities.
“For the last five months, I’ve taken monthly trips to facilities across Louisiana, alongside advocates from local and national partners, to talk about their rights while detained and hear from them,” said Andrew Perry, ACLU of Louisiana Immigrant Rights Staff Attorney. “Each visit, people in detention are thankful to see friendly faces and to know they are not forgotten. Too often, because these facilities are secluded in rural Louisiana, we overlook the thousands of people jailed for simply seeking a better future. This blog series hopes to elevate their experiences and combat that silence.”
The ACLU of Louisiana is also actively building trust with the immigrant community in south Central Louisiana, in order to better understand the myriad impacts that affect their everyday lives.
Recently, the ACLU of Louisiana partnered with the ACLU National Immigrant Rights Project to bring a successful habeas petition on behalf of Ms. Jessica Barahona-Martinez, a gay mother of three who was detained for over six years as a result of a Salvadoran arrest warrant and Interpol Red Notice stemming from false charges of gang activity in El Salvador. For nearly three of those years, Ms. Barahona-Martinez was detained in Louisiana, over 1,000 miles from her children and family in Virginia. The case was filed on her behalf on September 6, 2023, and Ms. Barahona-Martinez was subsequently released on September 28, 2023.
To learn more about the Immigrant Rights Project and read the first blog entry, visit the ACLU of Louisiana website: www.laaclu.org/irp
