BASILE, La. — Several Democratic lawmakers and members of Louisiana’s ACLU traveled to South Louisiana to visit two university students being held in ICE processing centers — part of what officials called an "oversight visit."
The trip was led by U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, D-La., and included Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and others. They met with Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University student detained in Jena, and Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts University Ph.D. student currently held in Basile.
Both were arrested in March after publicly expressing their pro-Palestinian views.
The delegation also met with Wendy Brito, a New Orleans mother of three and El Salvador native, and Jasmina Lam Hammer, a pregnant woman from New Jersey. Both women are also being held at the Basile ICE facility.
“From our conversations with these individuals, they’re frightened, they’re concerned, and they want to go home,” Carter said.
On Wednesday, lawmakers condemned the arrests of Khalil and Ozturk, pointing directly to policies enacted under President Donald Trump.
“When you disagree with someone, under our Constitution and under our rule of law, it’s not illegal,” Carter said.
Khalil, a green card holder, was arrested for speaking out and participating in demonstrations. Ozturk, on a student visa, was detained after publishing a piece criticizing Tufts University’s response to the Israel-Hamas war.
Sen. Markey called both arrests unconstitutional.
“She is being detained in violation of the First Amendment right to free speech, and in violation of the Fifth Amendment right to due process,” he said. “The very point of what they’re doing is to make these people examples.”
Lawmakers also used the visit to raise alarm about the sheer number of ICE detainees being held in Louisiana, far from their homes and legal support.
Privately run detention centers across the state — like the ones in Jena and Basile — have become a central hub in ICE’s detention system.
“We must divest from the private prison industry that has built not only this state, but this nation,” said Alanah Odoms of the ACLU. “We must put people over prisons.”
Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., didn’t mince words:
“We’re here to tell this administration, which is operating with abuse of power, that it will not go unchecked. We are putting them on notice.”
Officials said they plan to take their concerns back to Washington to engage Congress and press the judicial system to uphold and recognize the Constitution.
The full delegation included Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass.; Rep. Troy Carter, D-La.; Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss.; Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass.; Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass.; and Alanah Odoms, executive director of the ACLU of Louisiana.
