An ICE detention center on contaminated grounds
Everything about the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) has stirred controversy since beginning its aggressive arrest and deportation policies under Stephen Miller. No less controversial are its detention centers, with reports of physical abuse by agents, too little food, and highly unsanitary conditions.
Adding to the controversy, a detention center to hold families and unaccompanied minors is to be built on grounds that are highly polluted with PFAS, forever chemicals.
The England Airpark was once a military Air Force base in Louisiana, and it’s estimated that PFAS levels in the groundwater are several hundred thousand times higher than Federal limits allow.
The Environmental Working Group is a nonprofit that tracks military pollution in the US. Jared Hayes, a senior policy analyst with the Group, says, “There shouldn’t be housing at contaminated bases, and we need to be cleaning up this stuff much faster if we’re going to put people in harm’s way.”
Alleging that no testing of the soil and air has been conducted, Hayes added, “The risk for people living on site is in the dust and in the air, and we don’t know what levels are in the dust, or if the kids are playing outside—these can be areas of concern.”
Developers of the detention center claim that before being deported, families will typically be held at the site between 3 and 5 days. Immigrant advocates dispute this, however, believing they’ll be held for much longer periods.
While it’s not surprising that ICE has little appetite to conduct proper testing of the base to ensure the safety of its detainees, they seem equally willing to expose their own agents to the chemicals, which are linked to cancer and various diseases.
You can learn more about the plans for the detention center and the contaminated grounds in this article from The Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/25/pfas-chemicals-ice-famil...
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Evangel
Sadly, this is not surprising to me. The current director of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Scott Turner, recently went on tv to present the administration's plan to create more affordable housing. The plan included reversing environmental laws that require environment impact reports prior to land development. Currently, developers are required to conduct an environmental analysis to ensure the land is free of contaminants. He said, this would allow them to build cheap housing fast. In my opinion, this is more evidence the administration is engaged full throttle in eugenics—or maybe we should call it euthanasia for poor, minority populations.
Slipstream
They aren't treating detainees like human beings. Even people who support deportation are pushing back on the inhumane treatment. Animal Control has stricter rules than ICE.