Students Document Reports of Abuse at Immigration Detention Center

People in custody at a Louisiana immigration detention center are being left hungry, cold, and in an atmosphere detainees describe as abusive, according to a complaint to the Department of Homeland Security co-authored by Yale Law School students and civil rights advocates.

The complaint against the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center is based on fact-finding by the Yale Civil Rights Project, a student-run organization that offers Yale Law School students in their first semester a chance to work with civil rights and social justice organizations. Attorneys from the ACLU of Louisiana and Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights supervised the students and filed the complaint with the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties on Dec. 19. The complaint, which alleges violations of civil and human rights under U.S. and international law, calls for an immediate investigation and requests a response within 30 days.

The detention center, about 90 miles from the Gulf Coast in the town of Basile, is privately operated under contract to the federal government. (Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, is an agency of the federal Department of Homeland Security). The former criminal jail is designated for women and holds at least 700 detainees. It is one of nine immigration detention centers in Louisiana, which is second only to Texas for the number of detained immigrants housed there. The Louisiana facilities’ remote locations can be a problem, according to Nora Ahmed, ACLU of Louisiana legal director.

“These immigrants, by and large, are unrepresented because they are sequestered away from major cities, far away from attorney advocates and resources,” Ahmed said. “In turn, abuses run rampant.”

The Louisiana facilities have prompted complaints and reports by the ACLU and other civil rights advocates in recent years. They've also the subject of internal investigations by the Department of Homeland Security. (Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, is an agency of the department.) 

Students started working on the complaint in October, just weeks after starting law school. They conducted more than a dozen telephone interviews with the women detained at the center, commonly known as Basile. The complaint details the students’ findings of substandard and unlawful conditions. The document describes a failure to provide necessities like adequate food, hygiene supplies, warm bedding, communication with the outside world, and medical care. It also raises concerns about disciplinary measures and due process.

“The women we spoke to shared deeply unsettling accounts of systemic abuse and neglect that violated their human rights, harmed their mental and physical health, and stripped them of their civil rights and dignity,” said Trinh Truong ’27, one of the students who worked on the project. “Their stories underscored the urgent need for accountability and meaningful change in the immigration detention system, and I am grateful for the opportunity to help amplify their voices."

According to the complaint, the women reported getting inadequate portions of food, and what they did get was often spoiled. In one instance, a woman reported that a full day’s food was “five nuggets, two breads, [and] a cup of rice.” Those interviewed also reported sometimes having water that was undrinkable. They told of being denied appropriate food for their religious beliefs — a violation of First Amendment rights — or for their diet-related health conditions.

There were consistent shortages of hygiene supplies like toilet paper and soap, according to those interviewed. The women described how these shortages created a stressful environment in which detainees had to rely on the goodwill of staff or their peers to get basic supplies. The complaint also describes a lack of reasonably priced phone services, which ICE’s own standards require the agency to provide. The high price of international phone calls makes it “virtually impossible” for people detained to communicate with their families, according to the complaint, creating a situation one woman described as “emotional torture.”

The complaint also alleges that staff actively create a hostile environment for detainees.

“Many of the officers’ acts violate the standards set by ICE, causing the women to fear abuse and retaliation,” according to the complaint.

In one example, officers would sporadically demand, multiple times a day, that detainees clean up their cells, waking them up at night to do so. The pattern set detainees on edge, particularly those who do not understand English and are not provided with translators, according to the complaint. One woman reported feeling treated “like a dog.”

According to the report, women also reported being denied time in the prison library. ICE guidelines state that access to the library is needed for detainees to prepare for their legal cases, a policy meant to protect their due process rights, the complaint notes.

“I’m extremely grateful and honored to have had the opportunity to hear from these women directly,” student Priscilla Samey ’27 said. “I hope that our work helps pave the way for the sort of humane treatment they so clearly deserve.”

In addition to Truong and Samey, students Claudia McHardy ’27, Chaka Tellem ’27, Sam Maldonado ’27, Diana Jimenez Miranda ’27, Kosar Kosar ’27, and Anushka Vakil ’27 worked on the project. They were led by Jordan Andrews ’26, a Yale Civil Rights Project board member, who helped the group navigate legal calls, understand the legal standards that apply to ICE facilities, and document the issues described. As an intern with the ACLU of Louisiana this past summer, Andrews visited the detention center and designed the project for students to later document conditions there.

Andrews praised the students’ commitment to shedding light on injustices.

“I was so impressed by the students' dedication to getting this complaint across the finish line while juggling their first law school assignments and exams,” she said.

Ahmed also lauded the work first started by Andrews when she was a NAACP Legal Defense Fund Marshall Motley Scholar with ACLU of Louisiana as well as the efforts of the students this fall.

“Without the assistance of legal fellows and volunteers, including the tireless effort of Yale Law School students, we would not be able to do this work,” she said.

In addition to the ACLU of Louisiana, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, and the student group, a coalition of advocates for immigrant rights joined the complaint as signatories. They include the Southeast Dignity not Detention Coalition, Immigrant Services and Legal Advocacy, Louisiana Advocates for Immigrants in Detention, LSN Legal, the National Immigration Project, and the Tulane University Immigrant Rights Clinic.