South Louisiana ICE Processing Center — Basile (Women's Facility)
Overview
GEO Group-operated facility in Basile, Evangeline Parish, holding 988 immigration detainees as of February 2026, nearly all women. 13% classified as having a criminal conviction.
Sexual Abuse Conviction
Contract detention officer David Courvelle, 56, pled guilty on December 29, 2025 to sexually abusing a Nicaraguan detainee (identified as C.H.). Between May and July 2025, Courvelle had sexual contact multiple times with the detainee. He faces up to 15 years in prison; sentencing scheduled for April 10, 2026.
Forced Labor and Abuse Complaints
A former assistant warden, Manuel Reyes, allegedly ran an off-the-books late-night work scheme that coerced transgender detainees into physically and psychologically painful labor — moving heavy cinder blocks and handling industrial chemicals without protective gear. Reyes is also accused of repeated sexual harassment, sexual abuse, and threats against detainees.
Current and former detainees filed complaints through immigration rights groups alleging repeated sexual harassment, sexual abuse, physical abuse, coerced labor, and neglect of urgent medical and mental health care.
Protest Target
In June 2025, hundreds of SEIU-organized protesters gathered at the facility, calling for release of unjustly detained immigrants and highlighting “Detention Alley.”
Why It Matters
This facility concentrates multiple pipeline signals: GEO Group profit extraction, sexual violence against detained women, forced labor schemes targeting the most vulnerable (trans detainees), and the $1/day labor model that the Supreme Court is now reviewing.