The number of human beings locked in immigration detention is growing every day. The National Immigration Project is a ray of hope.
Some of America’s most brutal prisons are now being repurposed to hold ICE detainees, primarily law-abiding migrants seeking asylum, residency, or citizenship. The Louisiana State Penitentiary, better known as Angola, is one such institution.
Now it is being used to cage terrified migrants.
The solitary confinement section of Angola “became notorious among incarcerated people and staff alike as a prison within a prison, plagued with reports of extreme isolation, physical abuse, suicide attempts, and severe mental health deterioration among those held there.”
—Vera Institute of Justice
The National Immigration Project is fighting for justice, case by critical case.
Attorneys with the National Immigration Project won the release of four men detained in one of the most horrific facilities in America:
- A 72-year-old who has lived in the U.S. for 45 years and suffers from Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases:
- A 61-year-old brought to the U.S. as a child in 1973.
- A 66-year-old who has lived in the U.S. for 59 years.
- A 43-year-old granted protection under the Convention Against Torture
Three of the men were taken after reporting to routine ICE check-ins, and one after ICE officers came to his home. They had been held for months at the recently reopened “Camp 57” in the Louisiana State Penitentiary, better known as Angola.
