South Louisiana ICE Processing Center — Basile (Women's Facility) · LA · ~1,000 beds · GEO Group

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.

U.S. Citizen Wrongfully Detained (May 2026)

On May 20, 2026, a Colorado-born U.S. citizen — a Spanish-speaking mother of four — was detained at an ICE checkpoint in Lafayette after presenting her Louisiana state ID and Social Security card to deputies, who claimed both were fake. Despite producing additional documentation including tax records, she was handcuffed, shackled at the ankles, and transported to Basile around 6 p.m., then held until release at roughly 2 a.m. the next day (~18 hours) after an immigration attorney emailed her IDs to ICE. She was told she cannot leave the state and must report to ICE monthly, and plans to sue the Sheriff’s Office and ICE. The case illustrates a “detain first, investigate second” pattern that experts link to 287(g) agreements deputizing local law enforcement — Basile, a women’s facility, was the holding point.

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), wrongful detention of even U.S. citizens, and the $1/day labor model that the Supreme Court addressed in February 2026. On February 25, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that GEO Group is not immune from the long-running suit alleging it forced detainees to work for as little as $1/day, clearing the way for the case (and similar suits at GEO-run facilities like Basile) to proceed.

Detention Pipeline

South Louisiana ICE Processing Center — Basile (Women's Facility)