Trump finalizes a center to "massively concentrate" migrant children before deporting them

WashingtonThe Donald Trump administration is finalizing the opening of a new migrant detention center at the former Alexandria military airfield (Louisiana). This is the first ICE-controlled detention center designed to deport unaccompanied minors. "It will be the first place dedicated exclusively to mass concentration of unaccompanied minors for their subsequent deportation," denounced Setareh Ghandehari, director of the organization Detention Watch Network, in a press conference this Wednesday afternoon. With a capacity of about 500 beds, the facilities would also hold families with children in their care, which are currently concentrated in Dilley (Texas).

The opening of this center, which is imminent, has put local and international organizations on alert. The project is a shift in the goals of the Trump administration's mass deportation campaign. Its location is also concerning due to the concentration of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (chemicals known as PFAS) in the groundwater, "575,000 times higher than the federal limit established for drinking water," according to Amnesty International. In children, exposure to these chemicals is associated with lower cognitive, motor, and language development, as well as a higher risk of suffering from inflammatory bowel diseases.

The creation of a specific center for unaccompanied minors and families comes at a time when such detentions have skyrocketed. According to a report by The Marshall Project published in June, anti-immigration agents had already detained more than 6,200 children since Trump returned to power.

In 2021, the Joe Biden administration had put an end to family detention and, by the end of its term, there were about 24 minors on average in ICE custody each day. With Trump, this daily average has climbed to 226 children, according to data collected by The Marshall Project. In an estimate prepared by the newspaper The Guardian in conjunction with the legal group Mobile Pathways, it is estimated that at least 200,000 have been expelled by immigration judges during the Republican's second term. Children are difficult to fit into the "criminal" label that Trump repeats so often when talking about migrants arrested by ICE, but that has not stopped the acceleration of their detentions.

Alone before the judge

To avoid the risk of human trafficking, unaccompanied minors usually do not pass through ICE detention centers, but until now they had been placed under the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). But on this occasion, the administration is bypassing the ORR and placing the children under the custody of ICE officers, leaving them outside the usual procedure. Last year, the White House already cut legal assistance for unaccompanied minors. As a result, five-year-old children have had to defend themselves against deportation before an immigration judge.

The high water contamination and unsanitary conditions reported in other ICE centers have put local organizations in Louisiana on a war footing, as they reject this center. "Our message is clear and consistent: protect the children and cancel the contract with ICE. The Louisiana community wants investment in education, housing, and infrastructure, not in detention and deportation for ICE," explains Erin Tracy, a member of Sinla Activism, a group dedicated to supporting migrants in Louisiana. The construction of the facilities was approved thanks to an opaque agreement between the public administration of the airfield and the White House, according to these same local groups.

The opening of this new center in Alexandria will allow for an increase in the number of families detained with minors in their care and will also expand the capacity of the detention center that ICE already has at this location. Under the Trump administration, Louisiana has become one of the main deportation points in the United States. In June 2025, when deportation flights reached their highest level in the last five years, Alexandria topped the list of the country's main deportation points, with an average of 14 flights per day throughout 2025.

Last year, Gabriel (a fictional name) recounted to the ARA what his time in Alexandria was like: they gave him spoiled food and refused to give him medicine to lower his fever. When he left the center, after six days, he had lost four and a half kilos.