A prison with a dark past stretching back over a century previously described as “the bloodiest prison in America” is slated to be filled with migrant detainees in coming months. The facility joins an alarming list of detention centers popping up across the US. Its all due to the ongoing large-scale roundups of migrants suspected of entering the country irregularly.
Reputation for violence? Just what we’re looking for…
Violence, mass riots, escapes, brutality, inhumane conditions and executions. Those are just a few of the accusations that swirl around a prison called Angola in Louisiana. And now the notorious 18,000-acre prison has been earmarked to hold over 400 immigration detainees in the coming months.
Eunice Cho, senior counsel at the National Prison Project at the American Civil Liberties Union, states in The Guardian,
“Angola has a particularly dark history of abuse and repression that’s almost singular in prison history in the United States.”
And according to statements by the current administration, that reputation is exactly why the site was selected. The reputation of violence is intended to frighten people in the US illegally to “self-deport.” An approach that’s prompting alarm among immigration and criminal justice advocates.
Everyone deserves to have their rights respected
According to migrant advocates, housing people charged with immigration-related offenses in the same facility as those convicted of violent crimes creates a multitude of safety issues and human rights concerns. It’s also a red flag for potential violations of their constitutional protections. However, none of those concerns seem to faze the current administration. On the contrary it seems to play right into their strategy.
The Guardian writes:
“The Trump administration has crafted its immigration messaging to reinforce a tough-on-crime image and create a sense of fear among people in the US illegally…”
True to its racist roots, many of the incarcerated people detained in Angola still work the fields, picking long rows of vegetables by hand as armed guards patrol on horseback. The prison is also home to more than 50 death row inmates. And the state’s electric chair, nicknamed “Gruesome Gertie” is still proudly on display in the prison’s museum.
Louisiana, with one of the highest incarceration rates in the US, also has a bad reputation when it comes to the treatment of incarcerated people in general. A former incarcerated person in Louisiana said that prison staff called him and other incarcerated persons “slaves” because they were not allowed to refuse prison work assignments, saying “You actually experience and feel what slavery was like for our ancestors.”
Safe migration means dignity, not exploitation
Locking migrants in a prison notorious for brutality and forced labor does nothing to address the realities of migration—it only compounds exploitation. Freedom United demands a different path: treat migrants with dignity, respect their rights, and pass laws that protect people on the move instead of criminalizing them for the circumstances that force them to migrate. A migration system built on fear and punishment will only fuel abuse and trafficking, but a system rooted in protection and dignity can help end exploitation before it begins. Take action today.
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