U.S. News

ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) plans to open a new 528-bed facility for migrant families and unaccompanied children inside a Louisiana airport, AP reported this week.

The facility will be run by the nonprofit arm of a private prison company that has reported deaths of two detainees since April at one of its facilities in the state.

The new ICE facility at England Airpark in Louisiana will be run by the nonprofit arm of Louisiana-based LaSalle Corrections, a private prison contractor, according to Ralph Hennessy, executive director of the England Airpark Authority. The official contractor for the new ICE facility is the LaSalle Family Foundation, LaSalle Corrections’ nonprofit arm, a tax-exempt organization, AP reported.

Whether LaSalle Corrections’ nonprofit arm, LaSalle Family Foundation, may be violating federal tax rules is “a valid question,” said Josh Starin, attorney at law firm Shell Bray, in an interview with Impactivize. Starin previously spent 13 years at the Internal Revenue Service as a subject matter expert on major technical, procedural, and administrative issues for the IRS Tax-Exempt/Government Entities Business Operating Division.

Upon initial review of LaSalle Family Foundation’s most recent IRS tax filing, Starin said, “It doesn’t pass the smell test for what I would expect a private foundation to be operating.”