BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) -- Multiple complaints filed allege abuse at the South Louisiana Immigration and Customs Enforcement Processing Center in Basile.

Four complaints were filed by Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, the ACLU of Louisiana and the National Immigration Project on behalf of one woman and three transgender people alleging repeated abuse by prison officers and ICE employees from 2023 to 2025.

Allegations include sexual assault, forcible touching, groping, physical abuse, denial of seizure medication and retaliatory solitary confinement.

"Immigration detention in Louisiana has become a profit-driven system that prioritizes contracts and revenue over the rights and dignity of immigrants. This system routinely violates civil and human rights by confining immigrants in punitive conditions indistinguishable from criminal incarceration, in some cases for years. The conduct described herein exemplifies systemic failures in prevention, detection, response, and accountability," groups wrote.

The Department of Homeland Security Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties was urged by civil rights groups to recommend the release of named individuals in the complaint who remain detained and all individuals who are detained at the Louisiana facility, the termination of ICE's Intergovernmental Services Agreement with the facility and a full investigation of allegations.

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