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41m ago

U.S. Opens ICE ‘Louisiana Lockup’ at Angola With First Transfers and 400-Plus Bed Plan

Officials repurposed Angola’s shuttered Camp J under an emergency order, presenting the site as a notoriety-driven deterrent.

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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.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, center, tours "Camp 57," a facility to house immigration detainees at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, La., with Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, third left, and ICE Deputy Director Madison Sheahan, left, Sept. 3, 2025.
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Overview

  • Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry unveiled Camp 57 on Wednesday at the Louisiana State Penitentiary.
  • ICE has moved 51 detainees into the unit so far, with officials saying capacity will top 400 and that 208 could be held there by mid-month.
  • Noem said the prison’s reputation was a deliberate factor to encourage self-deportation, and leaders described the population as the “worst of the worst.”
  • Funding comes from the recently enacted One Big Beautiful Bill, with plans for roughly 416 beds in the former Camp J wing, which was closed in 2018 and rapidly renovated under a state emergency order.
  • The Angola opening extends a broader expansion that includes new sites in Indiana and Nebraska, even as Florida’s Alligator Alcatraz is being wound down under a federal court order and critics warn of legal access and conditions.