In response to the reports that the Trump administration will open an ICE facility at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, known as Angola, Amy Fischer, Amnesty International USA’s Director for Refugee and Migrant Rights said:
“The Trump administration’s decision to partner with Louisiana to use the notorious Angola prison to detain immigrants is just the latest move in President Trump’s shameful attack on immigrants.
“Angola prison, a notorious facility built on a former plantation used to enslave people, is steeped in a legacy of racism and brutal conditions. It is appalling that this facility is now being used to detain immigrants, some of whom are seeking safety in the U.S., and others who have lived in the U.S. for years.
“This new partnership follows the dangerous model set by Florida’s Everglades Detention Center, also known as “Alligator Alcatraz.” Like “Alligator Alcatraz,” the federal use of Angola reflects a disturbing trend of states using public resources to advance President Trump’s inhumane immigration agenda. The very nicknames given to these facilities, “Alligator Alcatraz” and “Louisiana Lockup,” trivialize the suffering of people who are caught up in President Trump’s mass detention and deportation agenda.
“Louisiana is already the second largest state for immigration detention. Thousands of people are already detained in Louisiana in some of the cruelest facilities, with long records of abuse, lack of access to legal counsel, and such a heinous track record of human rights violations the state is referred to as a “black hole” of immigration detention.
“The “Louisiana Lockup” lays bare the racism behind the Trump Administration’s mass detention and deportation machine, being the latest iteration of U.S. policies that prolong and profit off Black, brown, and Indigenous communities. The history of Angola reminds us that the cruelty is the point.
“We must dismantle this racist detention and deportation machine Immigrants are our neighbors, colleagues, family members, and our friends. Mass immigration detention in the U.S. is unnecessary, unlawful under international human rights law, and rooted in white supremacist ideologies. Detaining people in places like Angola and “Alligator Alcatraz” is not about safety; it is cruelty by design. And it must stop.”
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