A tiny Louisiana town has been revitalized thanks to an economic boom from a federal immigration center that has been flooded with migrants being deported by the Trump Administration.
Winnfield is a small rural town that is home to one of the largest Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities in the country – Winn Correctional Center.
With Donald Trump‘s promise of the largest mass deportation in history, the 1,600 beds at the Winn Correctional Center continue to stay full.
As of Friday, there were 48,674 migrants in ICE detention, according to NBC News data.
A total of 65,682 illegal immigrants were removed within Trump’s first 100 days, a Department of Homeland Security official told DailyMail.com.
Since then-Sheriff Cranford Jordan signed the ICE contract in 2019, the dying town’s economy has been bolstered thanks to a steady income from the facility.
Jordan told The Washington Post that residents were hesitant at first, but after witnesses the economic benefits, they are on board.
‘They said, «We don’t need them in this country,»‘ Jordan said. ‘They said, «The federal government wastes a lot of money.» I said, «‘I agree with you, but why not waste it here?»‘
Winnfield, Louisiana has been revitalized thanks to the steady income from housing migrants at the Winn Correctional Center (pictured)
Sheriff Josh McAllister (right) said the income has allowed his department to hire more staff, add cameras to the jail, get a drug-sniffing dog and invest in programs
The contract helped the town avoid bankruptcy and paid off their new $7 million jail in four years, according to the former sheriff.
‘They realized it’s not a liability,’ Jordan said. ‘The benefits greatly outweigh the negatives. It’s been an asset to our community, a dying community.’
ICE reportedly offered to pay three times the rate the state had offered to house inmates at the facility and guaranteed it would stay 60 percent full.
Winnfield’s mayor, Gerald ‘Scooter’ Hamms, told the newspaper money from the ICE facility helps fund the city.
‘Our primary duty is public safety,’ he said. ‘Revenue helps us do that.’
Recently elected Sheriff Josh McAllister said the income has allowed his department to hire more staff, add cameras to the jail, get a drug-sniffing dog and invest in programs for the inmates at their jail.
‘Our office goes out and checks on the elderly. I don’t charge our schools to provide resources officers. Because of that facility, I can do that,’ he said.
Former mayor George Moss, who worked at the facility when it was a prison then recommended new hires to ICE, said that while some residents are wary the place being used to house migrants, the town could have died without it.
Winnfield (pictured) is a small rural town that is home to one of the largest Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities in the country
Winnfield’s mayor, Gerald ‘Scooter’ Hamms (pictured), said money from the ICE facility helps fund the city
‘These detention centers got a bad name,’ he said, but ‘Winn Parish probably wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for them.’
The Winn Correctional Facility has also been subject to allegations of abuse and civil rights violations.
In October, the Department of Homeland Security’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) opened an investigation to the facility.
Several human right’s group filed a complaint claiming detainees were denied access to translators, leaving them unable to request medical care or complain about abuse.
According to the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights organization, officers pepper sprayed 200 inmates who were on a hunger strike in January 2024.
