Louisiana prison’s notoriety key to its selection as immigration jail, says Noem

Homeland security secretary Kristi Noem says she hopes it will encourage people in the US illegally to self-deport

The Trump administration purposely chose a notorious Louisiana prison to hold immigration detainees as a way to encourage people in the US illegally to self-deport, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary, Kristi Noem, said on Wednesday.

A complex inside the Louisiana state penitentiary, an immense rural prison better known as Angola, will be used to detain those whom Noem described as the “worst of the worst” Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detainees. Noem was speaking to reporters as she stood on the grounds of the facility near a new sign reading, “Louisiana Lockup”.