The walls of the South Louisiana Detention Center hide stories that read more like a dystopian prison novel than the operations of a U.S. immigration facility. Four detainees—three of them transgender—have stepped forward to allege months of harassment, sexual assault, and forced labor at the hands of a former assistant warden. Their accounts, now filed in complaints by human rights organizations, detail a system where identity became a weapon against them and survival often came at the price of silence.
Harassment Everywhere
Monica Renteria-Gonzalez, a transgender Mexican national, described the torment as relentless. “If I was in the recreation yard, he would follow me. If I was eating in the dining hall, he would sit next to me, making me feel uncomfortable. He followed me into the dorm,” Renteria-Gonzalez told Newsweek.
The man she accuses—identified in complaints as Manuel Reyes, a former assistant warden—allegedly singled out transgender men and masculine-presenting LGBTQ+ detainees for punishment disguised as “work.”
Labor for Chips and Soda
According to the complaints, Reyes created an ad hoc work program that forced detainees to perform grueling physical tasks for little or no compensation.
“We never had proper PPE. We never got paid,” Renteria-Gonzalez said. “If we did, it would be like a dollar, maybe five. Or we’d work for a bag of chips, a snack, or a soda.”
Tasks included pushing heavy cinder blocks and metal cabinets back and forth across dorms, sometimes for half an hour, only to be ordered to return them to their original spots. For Reyes, the work was less about productivity than humiliation.
“If this person complained or asked for protective gear, the response was always, ‘If you wanna be a man, I’ll treat you like a man,’” Sarah Decker, a staff attorney at Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, explained. “This was designed not to discipline but to torture.”
A Pattern of Abuse
The allegations, supported by the ACLU and the National Immigration Project, go beyond forced labor. Detainees described sexual assault, groping, denial of medical care, and physical retaliation, including beatings and solitary confinement for those who dared complain.
For Renteria-Gonzalez, the impact was suffocating. “It made me feel scared, frustrated, angry—because we don’t have a voice in here. When I spoke up, ICE only went through the motions, like they were doing something, but nothing changed.”
One detainee, Mario Garcia-Valenzuela, was reportedly beaten and handcuffed after filing complaints. Others saw their cases dismissed as “unsubstantiated.”
ICE and GEO Push Back
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin dismissed the allegations outright. “Nobody was forced into coerced labor. Nobody was physically abused. Nobody was denied medical care,” she said in a statement, labeling the claims “another hoax about ICE facilities.”
She went further, blaming such reports for a “1,000% increase” in assaults on ICE officers.
The GEO Group, which operates the Louisiana center under federal contract, echoed the denial. “We strongly disagree with these baseless allegations, which are part of a politically motivated campaign to abolish ICE,” a spokesperson told Newsweek.
Both DHS and GEO insisted their facilities uphold high detention standards, from meals to medical treatment.
But for human rights lawyers, those assurances ring hollow. “There’s a disturbing paper trail showing ICE knew what was happening,” Decker said. “This wasn’t one rogue officer. This was systemic neglect.”
The Silence of Fear
What keeps many detainees from speaking out, Renteria-Gonzalez said, is the constant fear of deportation or retaliation. “It’s out of fear ICE will deny everything and send you back to your country. At the end of the day, we’re in ICE’s hands to do whatever they want.”
RFK Human Rights and its partners filed their complaints under the Federal Tort Claims Act, which allows lawsuits against the U.S. government for abuses by federal employees. The government has six months to respond; otherwise, the groups plan to sue.
Wider Problem, Deeper Pattern
Advocates believe these four detainees represent only the surface of a much larger issue. “Sexual abuse and misconduct is pervasive across ICE facilities, especially those designed to house women,” Decker said.
Independent oversight boards have repeatedly raised concerns about ICE detention nationwide—from denial of medical care to retaliation against whistleblowers. Each revelation deepens the portrait of an agency operating in shadows, with detainees left defenseless against those who control every aspect of their lives.
A System on Trial
The Louisiana case cuts to the heart of the Trump administration’s immigration machine. With DHS Secretary Kristi Noem under fire for bottlenecking disaster relief funds and ICE accused of misconduct across multiple states, the allegations underscore a pattern: power concentrated in the hands of officials who act with impunity.
“It’s not just one abusive officer,” Decker said. “It’s a system that allows this to happen.”
For detainees like Renteria-Gonzalez, the truth is simpler—and more devastating. “It’s a lie to say we’re treated well. We are not. We are silenced, punished, and used.”
Whether courts will agree remains to be seen. But for now, the stories coming out of Louisiana echo far beyond its detention walls. They raise the oldest question in a democracy that prides itself on liberty: what happens when those without power are at the mercy of those with none of the will to protect them?
