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2w ago

Trump Administration Opens 'Camp 57' ICE Site at Angola Prison in Louisiana

Homeland Security says the notorious setting was chosen to deter unlawful migration by confining the 'worst of the worst'.

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In this aerial photo, the Louisiana State Penitentiary lies along the bending Mississippi River, Friday, July 21, 2023, in Angola, Louisiana. The former 19th-century antebellum plantation once was owned by one of the largest slave traders in the US. It spans 18,000 acres – an area bigger than the island of Manhattan – and has its own ZIP code.
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Overview

  • Officials said roughly 50–51 people have already been moved, with capacity scaling to about 400–416 beds and Louisiana projecting 208 occupants by mid-September.
  • The detainee housing is the refurbished Camp J unit, a shuttered solitary-confinement wing closed in 2018 and reopened under an emergency order.
  • DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Gov. Jeff Landry and ICE Deputy Director Madison Sheahan announced the opening and cast the site for serious criminal offenders.
  • The facility is financed through the One Big Beautiful Bill as part of a broader detention expansion across Republican-led states, including new sites in Indiana and Nebraska.
  • The opening follows a court-ordered wind-down of Florida’s 'Alligator Alcatraz' site, where a judge halted operations after environmental challenges.