New report uncovers widespread inhumane treatment of immigrants at Louisiana ICE centers

A new report by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Louisiana has revealed significant physical and sexual abuse of detained migrants within Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers in the state including, in some instances, abuses which "meet the definitions of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment under international human rights treaties."

The findings, released by a coalition of immigrant rights organizations including Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, the ACLU, and the National Immigration Project, detail severe mistreatment of detainees across nine Louisiana ICE facilities. The report cites "qualitative and quantitative data collected during 59 onsite jail visits from 2022 to 2024, including information gathered during interviews with over 6,200 detained individuals and facility tours."

The report goes into detail to highlight a range of abuses, including detainees being shackled in painful positions for extended periods, the provision of contaminated drinking water, and food tainted with rat feces served in insufficient portions. Additionally, detainees faced restricted access to medical and mental health care while women were systematically denied essential menstrual products, and some detainees were deprived of food, water, exercise, and sanitary facilities for over 24 hours.

The report also documents instances of abuse and discriminatory treatment, including "physical abuse; sexual abuse; torturous solitary confinement; humiliating and degrading speech; and retaliation against and suppression of speech and religious worship protected by the First Amendment."

The report goes on to shed a light on the broader conditions within these nine facilities, eight of which are operated by private contractors. These contractors have made significant financial contributions to lobbying efforts and political campaigns, raising concerns about the influence of private interests on the operation of these detention centers.

"Private prison companies contracted to run NOLA ICE jails continue to profit from wasteful government spending that funds human rights abuses," researchers conclude

Finally, researchers provide a series of detailed recommendations which include
reducing the scale and scope of immigrant incarceration in the state, replacing immigration detention with community-based support, ending the use of solitary confinement in NOLA ice jails, strengthening effective oversight and immediately end the use of for-profit immigration detention facilities.