ICE contracted private prison firm LaSalle Corrections to build 528-bed Louisiana family/child holding facility, bypassing ORR custody

In late June 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement signed a contract to build a 528-bed holding facility for migrant families and unaccompanied children at a former military base near Alexandria International Airport in Louisiana, the nation's busiest deportation-flight hub. ICE describes the facility as a "staging area," not a detention center, saying people would be held only a few days awaiting deportation flights. The facility will be built and operated by the LaSalle Family Foundation, the nonprofit arm of LaSalle Corrections, a private prison contractor that already runs several ICE detention centers in the South, according to Ralph Hennessy, executive director of the England Airpark Authority, who said the facility could be operational as early as August.

Unaccompanied children are normally required by federal law to be placed in state-licensed shelters and foster care overseen by the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Refugee Resettlement rather than ICE custody. A spokesperson at the airfield confirmed ORR is not involved in the Alexandria facility's operation. Immigration advocates, including Children's Rights chief legal counsel Leecia Welch, said children could be held at the facility far longer than ICE's stated few-day limit, citing precedent at other federal holding sites, and raised concerns about the loss of ORR oversight.