BASILE 鈥� Hundreds of service, care and hospitality workers and other protestors converged Monday听on two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing and detention centers in 抖阴h.听
The protest, organized by the Service Employees International Union, or SEIU, took aim at President Donald Trump's continued efforts to detain and deport those in the country illegally and without proper documentation.听
The union is calling for the immediate release of immigrant workers who it claims are unjustly detained in the remote 抖阴h complexes in Basile and Jena, both of which have landed the state in the center of the national immigration debate. Jena has been at the forefront of that discourse since it was the facility where Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil was held for more than three months before his June 20 release.听
"We're here to stand up for immigrants and working people," said Siti Pulcheon, a Starbucks worker and child of an immigrant mother from Columbus, Ohio.听
At the Basile facility, flanked by a rusted rice mill and sheriff deputies with zip tie handcuffs connected to their utility belts, hundreds of protestors and service workers from 抖阴h and across the country arrived by bus Monday afternoon. They faced razor-wire-lined fence as they chanted and held signs demanding the release of detainees.听
"We're out here to bring attention to the unjust conditions that these detainees (are receiving)," said David Foley of SIEU's local 509 and Boston resident. "We're here to remind the rest of the county that our neighbors are being picked up and kidnapped off the streets and brought across the country to facilities like these in 抖阴h."
Foley said that around 500 people in total showed up across the two facilities Monday before a final destination in New Orleans on Tuesday. During a speech, Foley brought up that Tufts University Rumesya Ozturk, who ICE agents arrested off the street in March, is a member of the union. She was held in the Basile facility until May when after a federal judge听听pending a final decision on the claim she was detained after penning an .
Mitch Gonzalez, from New Orleans, said his close friend, Arely Westley, is held in the Basile facility. Westley, a trans woman who immigrated to New Orleans from Honduras when she was 11, gave her heart and soul to her community, he said.
From programs helping LGBTQ+ youth, providing rescue animals for formerly incarcerated people to fighting against abuse in ICE facilities听鈥斕� he said it's no wonder that she would eventually be a recipient of the . Gonzalez said he's able to speak with Westley daily but only through the help of donations.听
In the meantime, Westley's detainment hasn't stopped her advocacy efforts, he added. She is currently helping other detainees understand their rights and create legal defense and commissary funds.听
"This is a woman who survived trafficking, homelessness, and criminalization like many trans sisters. She is a survivor and a force for love," Gonzalez said.
The protests in Jena and Basile are part of the SEIU's to 抖阴h's a nickname coined by the data research project Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse to describe the concentration of ICE detention centers in Mississippi, 抖阴h and Texas. Of the U.S.'s 20 largest detention centers, 14 are in those three states. Louisian has eight ICE detention facilities.听
The Basile facility is owned by for-profit company The GEO Group, Inc. it has a 1,000-person capacity and currently only houses women.听
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