Louisiana Shouldn’t Be the Deportation Capital of America – Big Easy

Here in New Orleans, we know something about hospitality, about second chances, and about justice. Our history—complex and beautiful—is rooted in resistance, resilience, and a deep, enduring fight for fairness.

That’s why what’s happening just up the road in Central Louisiana should give us all pause.

Every day, at Alexandria International Airport, immigrants—some documented, many not—are shackled, marched across the tarmac, and placed inside a detention center most people have never heard of. It’s called the Alexandria Staging Facility, and it’s one of the most secretive and efficient deportation hubs in the country.

From there, people are quickly sorted. Some are loaded onto deportation flights with no hearing, no lawyer, no warning. Others are bused to rural jails—places like Richwood, Winn, and Pine Prairie—where they sit in limbo, often for months, often without legal representation or any idea of what will happen next.

It’s a quiet machine, operating out of public view—but make no mistake: Louisiana is now at the center of America’s deportation pipeline. And I’ve seen it with my own eyes.

I recently led a bipartisan delegation of members from the United States House and Senate to visit these facilities. What we saw was troubling. We encountered masked agents who refused to identify themselves. We spoke to detainees completely cut off from their families and legal counsel. We saw a system that runs on secrecy and speed—not justice or humanity.

This isn’t how immigration enforcement should look. And it certainly isn’t how due process should work in the United States of America.

Some of these individuals are long-time residents—mothers, students, neighbors—picked up for minor infractions. A traffic stop. A missed court date. A paperwork error. Others are caught in politically motivated detentions, like Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown University researcher who was detained in Alexandria shortly after his wife—a Palestinian American—criticized the Israeli government online.

Let that sink in: A scholar was shackled and flown to Louisiana, likely because of something his wife posted on social media.

That’s not just chilling. It’s unconstitutional.

Now, I want to be very clear: if someone commits a violent crime, they should be held accountable. Period. But even in those cases, accountability must be carried out within the law—not above it, and not in the shadows.

What we are witnessing in Louisiana is a deportation operation designed for maximum efficiency and minimum transparency. It’s modeled more after Amazon or FedEx than a system of justice. And it’s not an accident.

Louisiana has long been one of the most incarcerated states in the nation. When Governor John Bel Edwards pushed through criminal justice reforms that reduced our prison population, private prison companies saw a new opportunity. With empty jails, rural land, and limited public scrutiny, Louisiana became a prime location for the expansion of immigration detention.

And the money followed. Private operators like GEO Group and LaSalle Corrections moved in quickly. ICE poured in funding. And today, our state—despite not being a border state—holds more immigration detainees than nearly anywhere in the country.

We’re not talking about hardened criminals. We’re talking about families, asylum seekers, and everyday people—held in facilities hours away from their lawyers, their communities, and their rights.

It’s unjust. It’s un-American. And it’s unacceptable.

Here in New Orleans, we value community. We understand the power of protest, the necessity of civil rights, and the cost of silence. And so I say this clearly: We cannot allow our state to become a human warehouse for federal immigration enforcement.

The Constitution guarantees due process and equal protection under the law—not just for citizens, but for all persons on U.S. soil. That includes the people being detained in Louisiana right now. That includes the mothers cleaning bathrooms in Richwood for $1 a shift. That includes the fathers pulled away from their children without warning. That includes the students, scholars, and workers caught in this machine.

America deserves better, Louisiana Demands better!

The Honorable Troy A. Carter, Sr.
United States Congressman
Louisiana’s Second District