BASILE, La. (KLFY) — In Basile, hundreds of service workers and employees are protesting during a multi-day Justice Journey across the South. Service Employees International Union along with the ACLU Louisiana, the NAACP, community leaders, and allies are holding demonstrations outside of ICE Detention Centers in Basile and Jena.

Freedom, family and justice is demanded by hundreds of demonstrators standing outside of one of the detention centers in Louisiana as they demand the release of unjustly detained immigration workers.

Demonstrators like Siti Pulcheon, a barista at Starbucks and child of immigrants say, “No one should be detained because they speak out and demand justice.”

According to the Justice Journey, mass incarceration and immigrant detention are deeply embedded in Louisiana’s economy. That’s why hundreds of demonstrators are peacefully protesting what they say is an exploitation of black communities and immigrant families.

Protesting the detention of immigrants who demonstrators say have been unjustly detained, accuse the Trump administration of weaponizing Louisiana’s incarceration infrastructure against immigrants in centers like the GEO Processing Center in Basile.

“This facility is one in four in the state operated by GEO Group, a multi-billion-dollar prison company that has contracts with the federal government to detain immigrants. ICE has forcibly been removing from our neighborhoods, workplaces, and courthouses.”

Other demonstrators like Reverand, Dr. Cassandra Gould, a faith leader and Joseph Bryant, an executive with the Service Employees International Union share why it’s important to fight for immigrant workers.

“This is a symbol of injustice, Bryant said. “This is a symbol of separation. This is a symbol of othering. We are from a country that is made up of primarily immigrants.”

On Tuesday, a multi-day demonstration will end in New Orleans as demonstrators march from Spanish Plaza to Lafayette Square.

“We came to sound the alarm. We stand here at the gates of this detention center, not just as union members, organizers and allies, but justice advocates,” Gould said.

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