The Trump administration is planning to open a 528-bed holding facility for migrant families and unaccompanied children next to an airport in Alexandria, Louisiana, in a bid to speed up deportations. The facility, described by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as a 'staging area', is intended to resolve logistical issues that arose last year when Guatemalan children were made to wait on an airport tarmac for hours before their deportation was blocked by a federal judge.
Located at the former England Air Force Base near Alexandria International Airport, the facility is expected to be operational by August. It will be run by a non-profit arm of LaSalle Corrections, a private prison contractor, and is designed as a 72-hour holding centre for migrants awaiting deportation. ICE has signed a contract for the site, which is near the nation's largest hub for deportation flights, with over 4,400 immigration enforcement flights in 2025.
However, immigration advocates have expressed concerns that children could be held for weeks or months, as has happened at other federal holding sites. They also worry about oversight and the departure from standard procedures for managing such children. 'It's an expansion of the deportation system in ways we haven't seen before,' said Leecia Welch, chief legal counsel at the non-profit Children's Rights.
Unaccompanied children are usually placed in state-licensed shelters run by the Office of Refugee Resettlement, but that agency is not involved in this facility. Instead, ICE has instructed contractors not to use terms like 'prisoner' or 'inmate', and to avoid bars or cages. The facility will not require headcounts and will allow families to wear their own clothes.
Officials have described the facility as a humanitarian effort for families who are 'self-deporting', but advocates argue that decisions to deport may be made under pressure or without full understanding of options. 'These are people that are volunteering to go back home and they're going back home as a family unit,' said Ralph Hennessy, executive director of the England Airpark Authority.
