New ICE Facility Could Speed Up Deportations

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Trump administration plans to open a 528-bed holding center for migrant families and unaccompanied children awaiting removal from the U.S., putting it next to a Louisiana airfield that has become the nation’s largest hub of deportation flights. Last week, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials signed a contract to build the facility at a former military base in Alexandria, according to Ralph Hennessy, executive director of the local England Airpark Authority. ICE said the facility is not a detention center but a “staging facility.” Immigration advocates say the facility is a departure from existing legal frameworks for managing children and expressed concern that they would be held longer than court-mandated limits.