In a move designed to expedite deportations, the Trump administration is preparing to open a 528-bed facility in Alexandria, Louisiana, designated for migrant families and unaccompanied minors. Nestled beside an airport hub, this center is poised to mitigate logistical issues encountered when relocating children from diverse foster homes and shelters nationwide.

Previously, these challenges were starkly highlighted when Guatemalan children were abruptly removed from their accommodations, offered little time to prepare, and subsequently transported to Harlingen, Texas. There, they endured long hours on an airport tarmac, awaiting deportation. A federal judge ultimately intervened to halt their removal, underscoring the pressing need for an efficient system near airports to handle such situations.

While U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) refers to the new Alexandria facility as a “staging area” rather than a detention center, officials assure it will only accommodate individuals for a few days at the most. However, skepticism remains among immigration advocates, who recall instances where similar sites held children far longer than promised.

The prospect of prolonged stays and insufficient oversight at such facilities is a mounting concern for these advocates. Many argue that the new facility marks a significant shift in the way the federal government handles migrant children, potentially increasing the risks they face.

Leecia Welch, chief legal counsel at the nonprofit organization Children’s Rights, expressed apprehension over this development. Welch stated, “It’s an expansion of the deportation system in ways we haven’t seen before. There’s just so much that could go wrong with this facility.”

ICE has tapped a private prison company to run the deportation facility

Unaccompanied children who are in the U.S. without parents or close relatives are not taken to facilities overseen by ICE. Instead, the law says they must be swiftly placed in the care of state-licensed shelters and foster care programs.

Those are run by the Office of Refugee Resettlement in the Department of Health and Human Services. However, that agency isn’t involved in the Alexandria facility’s operation, according to a spokesperson at the airfield where it’s being built.

Instead, the facility would be run by a nonprofit arm of LaSalle Corrections, a private prison contractor, according to Ralph Hennessy, executive director of the England Airpark Authority. He said it could be operational as early as August.

ICE officials signed a contract late last month to build the facility at the former military base near Alexandria International Airport, roughly 175 miles (280 kilometers) northwest of New Orleans, Hennessy said.

Compass Connections, a Texas-based nonprofit that runs shelters for unaccompanied immigrant children, had originally been tapped to help operate the facility and laid out plans during a public presentation in February.

But the company’s president, Sonya Thompson, told the AP last week that it was no longer involved. She did not elaborate.

Officials have said the facility is for ‘self-deporting’ families

In public board meetings, airpark officials said the facility is a “humanitarian effort” for families that are “self-deporting.” Immigration advocates say families and unaccompanied children sometimes make that decision under pressure or because they don’t understand their options.

“These are people that are volunteering to go back home and they’re going back home as a family unit,” Hennessy told the AP.

The facility would sit next to the nation’s largest hub for deportations. More than 4,400 immigration enforcement flights came into and out of the Alexandria International Airport in 2025, according to data from the ICE Flight Monitor, an initiative of Human Rights First. ICE planning documents say families and children at the facility “are in the legal custody of ICE and can only be released at the direction of ICE.”

The agency has instructed contractors that families at the facility cannot be referred to as prisoners, detainees or inmates, records show. The agency ordered contractors to not use bars or cages when transporting families and unaccompanied children. The facility will not be required to engage in headcounts and should allow families to “wear their own clothes,” the agency added.

The private prison company runs other ICE detention centers

Louisiana-based LaSalle Corrections runs a range of private prisons and federal immigration detention centers throughout the South, including the “Louisiana Lockup” inside the state’s maximum-security prison in Angola.

The official contractor for the new ICE holding facility will be the company’s nonprofit arm, the LaSalle Family Foundation. According to its tax records, the nonprofit provides chaplain services and educational programming in correctional facilities.

However, LaSalle Corrections itself will be involved in operating the holding facility and ensuring compliance, the company’s chief financial officer, Tim Kurpiewski, wrote in an email reviewed by the AP.

LaSalle spokesperson Scott Sutterfield declined to comment.

The deaths of two detainees have been reported since April at a LaSalle-run ICE facility in the state.

Winn Correctional Center was also found in June to have violated standards governing environmental health and safety, food service, use-of-force, medical care and other subjects, according to the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General.

In Ohio, authorities have detained a woman following the mysterious vanishing of a young girl during a boating excursion on Lake Erie. A day later, another passenger was discovered dead in the water, as reported.

The disappearance of 11-year-old Angelique Cunningham occurred while she was on a nighttime boating trip on Lake Erie’s western waters with her neighbor, 41-year-old Kristen Gerrie, and 38-year-old Jonathan Ciha, whose body was tragically found the following day, according to reports by WTVG.

Kristen Gerrie was taken into custody and charged with child endangering on Friday as part of the ongoing investigation, reported the area’s ABC affiliate station.

Gerrie was in charge of overseeing Cunningham during their outing on the lake, which began at Meinke Marina in Jerusalem Township when she, Cunningham, and Ciha embarked on a boat trip.

According to reports, mere minutes after their departure, Cunningham disappeared, sparking a search for the missing girl.

Authorities suspended a search for the young girl on Friday evening after saying they had exhausted all resources to search for the pre-teen from Toledo.

The Toledo Fire and Rescue Department said that the search for Cunningham had moved to a recovery effort.

The body of a girl was discovered near the Lake Erie shoreline on Sunday, though officials have not yet confirmed the person’s identity, the outlet reported.

Ciha was found dead in the water on Thursday morning after a horrified boater called 911. A deputy coroner said the man drowned, but the circumstances and manner of his death remain under investigation.

Gerrie somehow swam to shore after the incident, and authorities later questioned her in connection with the mysterious death and disappearance.

The boat was recovered on Thursday at the nearby West Sister Island.

“Our thoughts remain with the family and everyone affected by this tragedy. We ask the public to continue giving emergency crews the space needed to conduct this difficult operation,” the Toledo Fire and Rescue Department wrote in a statement.

Gerrie is being held behind bars on $50,000 bail, according to booking records.

Authorities have not elaborated on what events unfolded on the boat, and it’s unclear what Ciha’s relationship to Gerrie and Cunningham was.

An investigation into the incident remains ongoing.