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.

PROVO, Utah – Tyler Robinson, a 23-year-old man facing accusations of murdering Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University last year, is scheduled to appear in court on Monday. The preliminary hearing, expected to last a week, will evaluate if the prosecution possesses enough substantial evidence to proceed with a trial.

Traditionally, many cases see prosecutors securing an indictment from a grand jury without opposition from the defense. However, Robinson’s case differs as he was charged via information. This requires the prosecution to demonstrate probable cause during a public preliminary hearing to decide whether the case can be escalated to trial.

During the hearing, defense lawyers will have the opportunity to question the witnesses. The standard of proof at this stage is lower than that of a full trial. Prosecutors must establish probable cause for the charges rather than proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, a challenge reserved for the trial itself before a jury.

Kirk, a 31-year-old father of two, was speaking at a TPUSA event in front of thousands of young people when a sniper’s bullet fatally struck him in the neck. His widow and parents are expected to attend the hearing.

Prosecutors have alleged that investigators found Robinson’s DNA on the trigger of the suspected murder weapon, his grandfather’s Mauser rifle; a towel they found wrapped around it; three of the four bullets inside — and a screwdriver recovered near the suspected rooftop sniper’s perch.

Digital evidence against Robinson is expected to include alleged confessions over text messages and the Discord communications app.

Police recovered the rifle in a patch of woods near the UVU campus, along the suspect’s escape route. Robinson is accused of sending text messages to his lover, Lance Twiggs, about wanting to retrieve the rifle, and law enforcement sources have said he is believed to have come face-to-face with an officer manning the perimeter nearby.

“Stuck in Orem for a little while longer yet,” Robinson allegedly wrote in the hours after the murder. “Shouldn’t be long until I can come home, but I gotta grab my rifle still.”

Twiggs, whom Robinson allegedly left a handwritten note confessing to the crime, is cooperating with investigators and has not been charged.

While the suspect’s lover won’t take the witness stand at the week-long preliminary hearing, prosecutors are expected to play a video of his interview with police.

While Robinson’s defense played up the fact the ATF was unable to conclusively match the bullet that killed Kirk to the Mauser, analysts couldn’t rule it out either. They found it was a consistent caliber and recovered a spent casing that did match.

Witnesses are also expected to place Robinson at the scene — when he lived a four-hour drive away in Washington, Utah.

In addition to allegedly shooting Kirk, he is also accused of witness tampering, committing a violent offense in the presence of a child, felony discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily injury and obstruction of justice.

Prosecutors have alleged Robinson targeted Kirk because of his political views, tried to conceal the rifle and the clothes he wore during the shooting and urged Twiggs to delete incriminating messages, destroy the note and stay silent if police questioned him.

Robinson has not yet entered a plea and won’t be required to do so unless prosecutors prevail at the preliminary hearing.

The top charge against him, aggravated murder, carries the potential death penalty.