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American Siberia
Up the road just 3 miles farther, past Jena High School and out into the woods, would have come upon the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center, run by the GEO Group. It is the ninth-largest immigration detention center in the country, and about 1,180 men are held there on any given day.
But this afternoon, as it did once every three months, GEO was coming down to them. The mood in the Strand was light, positive. These meetings tended to be. The townspeople, mostly parish leaders and local businesspeople, sat down for lunch, which was catered and free.
GEO was no stranger to Jena, and Jena no stranger to GEO. They’d been partners for years, back before the Jena facility had been retrofitted for immigrant detention, back before GEO was even called GEO. Now the facility was one of the largest employers in the area: 250 jobs. It was also one of the region’s biggest taxpayers.
The remote facility had grown into a central node in a newly established network of immigrant detention centers that span central Louisiana. Immigration advocates refer to this region as “the black hole,” a place where people disappear into overcrowded detention, sometimes for years, often without ever seeing a lawyer or being convicted of a crime. Others are whisked onto deportation flights, headed for countries they’ve fled or never been to. One place where people who have been brought to Jena rarely end up is back at their American homes, in the lives they were living before agents banged on their front doors or raided their workplaces or pulled them over for a traffic stop.
But this afternoon, as it did once every three months, GEO was coming down to them. The mood in the Strand was light, positive. These meetings tended to be. The townspeople, mostly parish leaders and local businesspeople, sat down for lunch, which was catered and free.
GEO was no stranger to Jena, and Jena no stranger to GEO. They’d been partners for years, back before the Jena facility had been retrofitted for immigrant detention, back before GEO was even called GEO. Now the facility was one of the largest employers in the area: 250 jobs. It was also one of the region’s biggest taxpayers.
The remote facility had grown into a central node in a newly established network of immigrant detention centers that span central Louisiana. Immigration advocates refer to this region as “the black hole,” a place where people disappear into overcrowded detention, sometimes for years, often without ever seeing a lawyer or being convicted of a crime. Others are whisked onto deportation flights, headed for countries they’ve fled or never been to. One place where people who have been brought to Jena rarely end up is back at their American homes, in the lives they were living before agents banged on their front doors or raided their workplaces or pulled them over for a traffic stop.
https://slate.com/business/2025/06/donald-trump-immigration-ice-raids-arrests-jena-louisiana.html
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