Architectural plans for the ICE family and child detention center in Alexandria, Louisiana, have been obtained by the Guardian, revealing new details about the proposed facility. The ranking member of the US Senate Finance Committee, Senator Ron Wyden, has demanded transparency over the project, which was first reported by the Guardian in March.
Wyden Expresses Grave Concerns
Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, has written to contractors and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) expressing concerns about conflicts of interest, environmental contamination, and the lack of a public process. “A federal facility designed to hold children and families in federal custody cannot be stood up in secrecy,” the letter states.
Details of the Proposed Facility
Documents obtained by the Guardian, including layout designs, draft contracts, and email communications, provide further details of the facility’s operations. The planned facility, partly based in an old military barracks, will have space for 528 beds and is expected to hold families and unaccompanied minors for around 72 hours before deportation from a regional airport at the same site.
The Alexandria airport is a central node in the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda and already houses a separate detention center for men, run by private corrections company Geo Group. An investigation by the Guardian in 2025 revealed due process violations, medical issues, abuse, and crowded conditions.
Concerns Over Conflict of Interest
The planned family facility is set to be run by Texas-based non-profit Compass Connections alongside the charitable arm of private prison group LaSalle Corrections. Senator Wyden has written to Compass Connections expressing concerns that its existing work with the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which promotes the health and well-being of refugees and unaccompanied migrant children, conflicts with immigration enforcement activities.
The letter states that Compass Connections “has long been one of the nation’s largest providers of care to children in the Unaccompanied Children Program,” receiving over $1.6 billion in federal funding in the last three years. It questions how the organization reconciles its anti-trafficking and child-welfare missions with involvement in a deportation pipeline. The non-profit did not respond to requests for comment.
Claims of Humanitarian Effort
Compass Connections president Sonya Thompson told a public meeting in February that the site would provide “wrap-around services” to migrants before deportation and house only those who voluntarily choose to “self-deport.” Officials described the project as a “humanitarian effort,” distancing themselves from the term detention center. However, newly released records show the proposed center is referred to as delivering “detention services” in numerous emails and contract documents.
Migrant rights groups dismissed these claims. Senator Wyden stated, “At every opportunity, Trump and his allies have abandoned their legal obligations to protect children from abuse, neglect, and human trafficking. A detention regime that punishes unaccompanied children and terrorizes their families is not a humanitarian effort.”
Environmental and Health Concerns
The documents also reveal that the site has been under consideration since at least May 2025, when an environmental assessment was prepared. The planned facility is situated on a former military base in one of the most PFAS-contaminated locations in the US, raising serious questions about environmental and health suitability for children.
Senator Wyden wrote to the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), the federal agency overseeing ORR, expressing concerns that the facility may not serve the best interests of children. He noted that ACF “has the authority and the responsibility to refuse to place children in conditions that contravene the agency’s own child-welfare standards.”
A spokesperson for ACF said the agency “carefully reviews all congressional requests and responds directly to the requestor, as appropriate.”
Architectural Plans Revealed
Documents released under public records requests show architectural layout plans for the facility, which include a sprawl of temporary modular housing structures next to converted barracks. The proposed site would be enclosed behind a large fence.
