DHS opens new immigration detention facility inside Louisiana’s Angola prison

A new immigration detention center designed to house hundreds of undocumented immigrants that are guilty of serious crimes open in Louisiana this week as part of the prosecutor General Pam Bondi called a “historic agreement” between the State and the Federal Government.

The new installation – which is located inside the penitentiary of the State of Louisiana, commonly called Angola – is designed to house more than 400 prisoners.

The installation received the name of Camp 57 after the Louisiana Republican Governor Jeff Landry is the 57th governor of the State. Federal officials also nicknamed Camp 57 as “Louisiana Lock”. In a press release, the Ministry of Internal Security described it as part of a “new partnership” between the Trump administration and the state of Louisiana.

Customs officials and the application of American immigrants said that 51 detainees had already arrived at Camp 57 on Tuesday.

“It is not only a typical ice detention center that you will see elsewhere in the country,” said the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem at a press conference in front of camp 57 on Wednesday, alongside Bondi and Landry.

She said that some of the men who have already been transferred were sentenced to serious crimes, including murder and rape.

“Louisiana is one of the many states intensifying to solve these problems,” said Noem.

Noem also indicated that the “notorious” history of Angola was one of the reasons why it had been chosen for Camp 57.

“It is a notorious establishment, it is an establishment, the Angola prison is legendary – but it is a message that these people who will be here, who are illegal criminals, must understand,” said Noem to journalists.

During the press conference on Wednesday, Landry said that the installation was next to a lake “full of alligators” and surrounded by a “forest full of bear”. An officer of the Louisiana Correctional Services Department told CBS News on Wednesday that there were alligators as large as 10 feet in the lake.

Camp 57 has a chapel and a law library, the officials of the application of familiar laws said on Wednesday.

The establishment, which will only house men, is separated from the rest of the prisoners of the State of Louisiana incarcerated in the Angola complex, which extends over 18,000 acres.

Camp 57 was closed for many years before the start of the renovations about a month ago. DHS officials said it was renovated in operating condition in approximately 30 days.

Before its closure, Camp 57 had been used for disciplinary measures against state prisoners, according to officials of the application of familiar laws with the project.

The transfer of ice prisoners between the facilities is not new but has increased within the framework of the current administration. An analysis of CBS News of government data revealed that more than half of the immigrants detained by ice between January 20, 2025 and July 29, 2025, were transferred to another installation twice or more – a larger share than during the Biden administration, the first Trump administration or the second Obama administration.

Inmates are also mixed further during these transfers, found CBS News. As part of the current administration, around 61% of prisoners who started their stay was transferred more than 100 miles at least once. It is also a higher figure than in previous administrations.

Some immigration defenders are concerned about this practice to make detainees more difficult for prisoners to contact dear beings or their lawyers.

Asked about the Increase in Detention Transfers and How and When Ice Determines Someone Should Be Transferred, Noem Said Wednesday that “This specificity is Going to Host Most Dangerous Criminal Illegal Aliens in the Country, Becuse it is so secure. Those individuals NOTH FACILITIES AT THE COUNTRY … Becuse it is so Secure Behind These Fells. Do it as we must to expel them outside the country and bring them back to them. “

Last month, An ordered federal judge That the Trump administration dismantles an immigration detention center managed by the State in the Florida Everglades nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz”. The DHS began to move prisoners from the establishment last week.

Regarding “Alligator Alcatraz”, Noem said on Wednesday that the White House will continue to appeal the judge’s orders because she thinks that the judge “made the wrong decision”.