Khan Suri, an Indian national whose research focuses on peacebuilding in the Middle East, was detained by ICE officials in Chantilly, Virginia, and transferred to a temporary holding facility in Louisiana. Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, in a report, referred to this facility as “the core of the US deportation system.” According to the report, approximately 1,000 people are processed through this 400-bed staging facility each week.
“When they are sent to Alexandria, it means they are about to be deported. They are already on their way out of the country,” said Homero López, the director and managing attorney of Immigration Services and Legal Advocacy, a legal services provider in New Orleans. “There is no process for them to interact with anyone from the outside.”
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Khan Suri was arrested on March 17 after his J-1 visa was revoked, according to his attorneys and Georgetown University. He is accused of spreading Hamas propaganda and having connections to a suspected or known terrorist. His lawyers have denied these accusations and allege that his detention is linked to the Trump administration’s broader effort to revoke visas of individuals based on their Palestine-related speech, which they deem unconstitutional.
Last week, a federal judge ruled that Khan Suri cannot be removed from the country while his petition is pending.
Khan Suri’s attorney, Hassan Ahmad, was unable to speak with him by phone between Wednesday and Saturday of last week, he told CNN. This left his legal team uncertain about which facility he would be transferred to in the days following his arrest. Every time Khan Suri tried to call his wife, she entered a credit card number to pay the fees before the calls abruptly disconnected, Ahmad said. “He was not given a pre-dawn meal (as he is currently fasting for Ramadan), and the food he was given was ‘very poor,'” Ahmad told CNN.
Khan Suri informed Ahmad that his questions about the next steps in his case went unanswered. Finally, after tracking down a field office director, Ahmad learned that Khan Suri was transferred to Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, on Friday.
Immigrants awaiting hearings are typically held at the Alexandria facility for no more than 72 hours while they are processed for transfer to long-term detention centers. It is unclear why Khan Suri was held at the Louisiana facility before being transferred to Texas.
It is difficult for family members or attorneys to reach detainees at Alexandria because it is designed for short-term stays, López said. “It’s a very complicated process to get in contact with your family members and your attorneys, your support systems in general,” he added.
A petition requesting Khan Suri’s return to Virginia states that his legal and immigration counsel are all based in Virginia.
The facility, also operated by the GEO Group, lacks a visitation space, client-attorney meeting rooms, and a place for confidential legal calls, according to the ACLU’s 2024 report and legal experts who spoke with CNN. There is no process for attorneys to schedule legal calls; instead, they must email the New Orleans deputy field office director, according to the report.
The GEO Group stated to CNN that its contracted ICE processing centers provide “access to telephone and tablet services through a (third-party) vendor, and access to visitation (and) legal services … for individuals going through the immigration review process.”
Because visitation is not permitted at the Alexandria facility, documentation of any abuses there is limited to government data and oversight reports, according to the August 2024 ACLU report.
However, government oversight bodies have repeatedly found inadequacies in medical services, suicide prevention, and reporting on uses of force at the facility.
Alvarado, where Prairieland is located, is a city of approximately 6,000 people and is about 40 miles southeast of Dallas.
The Prairieland facility opened under the Trump administration in 2017.
“There’s a long record of mistreatment at the Prairieland Detention Facility,” said Migliozzi, the Freedom for Immigrants communications director, who pointed to several issues at the facility, such as its Covid-19 response.
ICE did not reply to a request for comment about conditions at the Texas facility.
Rodney Cooper, executive director at LaSalle Corrections, the private prison company that operates the Prairieland Detention Facility, said the facility “adheres to strict standards and regulations” set by federal law, which are independently reviewed for compliance. “The facility is committed to providing humane treatment, access to medical care, and necessary support services to all detainees. Extensive measures are in place to address any concerns related to health, safety, and overall living conditions,” Cooper said in a statement to CNN.
In May 2020, 10 people who contracted Covid-19 while detained at Prairieland filed a lawsuit against the facility for lack of social distancing, limited cleaning supplies, and lack of treatment.
Cooper testified in Congress in July 2020 that LaSalle Corrections was regularly updating its Covid-19 prevention and control protocols.
