- The 528-bed center at England Airpark is nearly complete and could open within weeks, but I-C-E has not set a date.
- The Alexandria Family Staging Center would hold families, unaccompanied minors, and single adult women before deportation or transfer.
- Children could spend up to seventy-two hours at the site, outside their usual federal shelter system.
ICE is preparing a 528-bed facility at England Airpark in Alexandria, Louisiana, for families, children traveling alone and single adult women awaiting deportation or transfer. The site is nearing completion.
The facility occupies renovated former Air Force barracks beside Alexandria International Airport. Its location places the new operation alongside existing ICE deportation activity at the airport.
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Local officials said the project was about 95% complete last week. One district representative said it could begin receiving people “within the next week or two.”
Other local officials anticipated an opening within two to three weeks. ICE has not announced a specific date for the facility to start operating.
ICE calls the site a staging point before flights or transfers
The operators call the site the Alexandria Family Staging Center. ICE has described it as a “staging facility for deportations,” for people waiting to leave the country or move to another detention facility.
The LaSalle Family Foundation is expected to operate the center, while Anovaeon would handle daily operations. The planned population includes families with children, unaccompanied minors and single adult women. Some people would be voluntarily self-deporting; others would be awaiting removal.
Anovaeon CEO Eric Fritz addressed the project at a commissioner board meeting. He said the facility was intended as a staging center for families departing voluntarily, while acknowledging the difficult circumstances behind their departures.
“This project right over here is not a detention center, it's a staging center for families who are voluntarily departing this country, admittedly through pretty crappy circumstances on their end. I acknowledge that.”
Operators expect the average stay to be under 48 hours. Planning documents say families and children could remain for as long as 72 hours before flights leave from the nearby airport.
The plan would move children outside their usual federal shelter system
Children arriving without a parent are usually placed through the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement. The proposed facility would instead hold them in ICE custody before deportation or transfer.
It would be the first facility built under the current Trump administration to hold unaccompanied minors, according to the facility coverage. Detention Watch Network advocacy director Setareh Ghandehari called it the “first and only” ICE facility dedicated to detaining and deporting those children.
Critics say ICE custody bypasses the child-protection process normally associated with the refugee-resettlement system. ICE’s description emphasizes the center’s temporary role before flights or transfer. The facility is designed for short stays, but its proposed use would place children in a different federal custody system.
A five-year contract adds beds beside an existing ICE operation
The England Airpark board approved the project in February 2026. A five-year contract covers the conversion of former Air Force barracks into a temporary holding site for families and children.
ICE already holds adult men facing deportation in a separate 400-bed facility on the airport tarmac. The planned 528 beds would more than double the number of immigrants who can be held on airport property.
The new center therefore expands an airport-based deportation operation while serving a different group from the existing facility. Its planned residents include families and women as well as children traveling without a parent.
Amnesty raised pollution concerns as protesters gathered at the site
Amnesty International said the facility is being opened on one of the most polluted sites in the United States. It cited contamination levels “5,000 times higher than recommended limits.”
Local activists and faith leaders held a vigil and march at the fenced-off site on October 1, 2026. Their protest took place as the project approached completion and local officials discussed an opening in the coming weeks.
