SCOOP: Top Senate Dem Investigating Companies Running New ICE Facility for Kids

U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore), Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, is investigating two for-profit companies contracted to run a new ICE facility for unaccompanied children about to open in Louisiana. Private prison company LaSalle Corrections and “humanitarian response” firm Anovaeon LLC are facing Wyden’s scrutiny.

“Senator Wyden has sought more information from both organizations, but his inquiry is ongoing,” a spokesperson confirmed in a message to the Queen Zone on Thursday, saying details of the investigation are not yet available.

The two for-profit companies are engaged to run a new ICE facility for unaccompanied children and families set to open at England Airpark in Alexandria, Louisiana, the epicenter of Trump’s third-country deportations.

The Associated Press reported in July about the Alexandria facility for unaccompanied minors: “The official contractor for the new ICE holding facility will be [LaSalle Corrections’] nonprofit arm, the LaSalle Family Foundation.”

After the Queen Zone reported in July with questions raised by a former IRS attorney about LaSalle’s “nonprofit arm,” LaSalle did some scrambling.

13 days after the Queen Zone reported former IRS attorney Josh Starin’s questions about nonprofit LaSalle Family Foundation, LaSalle established a for-profit LLC also called LaSalle Family Foundation, registered as a Delaware corporation.

Starin spoke with the Queen Zone in July about nonprofit LaSalle Family Foundation. He said whether the organization may be violating federal tax rules is “a valid question.” 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.’” 

Verite News reported last week, with details about LaSalle’s switcheroo: 

“At the time that the England Authority approved the detention center project, at its monthly Meeting on Feb. 26, the only LaSalle Family Foundation in Louisiana was a charitable group run by the McConnell family — a Ruston-based family whose patriarch William McConnell founded LaSalle Corrections.

“But between that meeting and when the contract was signed in August, a new, for-profit LaSalle Family Foundation was registered in Delaware. The firm, like its nonprofit namesake, is also controlled by McConnell.  A bit less than a month later, in mid-August, the nonprofit LaSalle Family Foundation changed its name to Bastille Outreach, apparently after the street in Ruston where LaSalle’s headquarters is located.”

Attorney Starin posted a comment on LinkedIn this week in response to Verite’s reporting: “I wonder where the transfer of the activities are recorded. If they were ever in the hands of the nonprofit then the charity needs to have received fair market value for those assets or else there is likely a 4958 application.”

Starin messaged the Queen Zone this week: “The [Louisiana] AG can inquire to ensure that the donations and funds that were entrusted to the 501(c)(3) are being dedicated to the donors’ intent and that the activities are within the purposes the organization was created for. That would likely include understanding major transfers of assets and activities.” 

In July, Starin told the Queen Zone that the Louisiana attorney general would be the first line of regulation for LaSalle’s tax-exempt organization. 

But a spokesperson for Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill messaged the Queen Zone in July: “Nah, reach out to ICE / DHS. The AG fully supports the brave men and women of ICE.”

LaSalle’s switcheroo is consistent with other reporting about the company. Hunterbrook Media reported a deep dive in August into LaSalle’s “Accountability Shell Game.” Hunterbrook reported: “Despite a spate of oversight failures and recent detainee deaths, LaSalle is expanding its footprint, taking over specialized ICE facilities, including a controversial new staging site at England Airpark for families and unaccompanied children.”

The American Prospect reported in July: “A spokesperson for the [England Airpark] authority did not respond to a request for comment, including whether board members are concerned that LaSalle Corrections is attempting to evade taxes by using its foundation to run the camp.”

Alexandria ICE Facility Raises Alarms of Child Trafficking Risks 

Sen. Wyden is watchdogging the Alexandria ICE facility, fighting against risks of child trafficking. He told the Queen Zone in August, in response to Christian nonprofit group Faithful America urging his oversight of the facility: 

“Since the day he took office Donald Trump has been going out of his way to endanger migrant children and leave them at risk of falling into horrific cycles of trafficking and other abuse,” Wyden said. “I’m extremely concerned that the new ICE detention facility planned for construction in Louisiana will be another black box location for the Trump administration to disappear migrant children with no oversight and no accountability. As a leading voice in Congress conducting oversight into Trump’s treatment of unaccompanied children, I will continue using every tool at my disposal to spotlight these abuses and fight for accountability, and will closely watchdog this new proposed facility.”

Unaccompanied children at the Alexandria facility will be in ICE custody, even though “ICE does not detain unaccompanied children — except in rare instances,” according to its website. By statute (Homeland Security Act of 2002), unaccompanied children must be under the care and custody of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR).

However, unaccompanied children at the Alexandria ICE facility will have accepted a “voluntary departure” or a removal order and will be in ICE custody. 

Sen. Wyden wrote a scathing letter to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and ACF (Administration for Children and Families) Secretary Alex Adams in September, raising questions about risks of child trafficking. Wyden wrote:

“The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS or Department) continues to dismantle its capacity to identify, respond to, and prevent trafficking and exploitation of children in its custody, particularly unaccompanied children referred to the Administration for Children & Families’ (ACF) Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR).” 

An ORR spokesperson messaged the Queen Zone about Sen. Wyden’s letter and the risks of child trafficking at the Alexandria ICE facility, saying: “The Administration for Children and Families carefully reviews all congressional requests and responds directly to the requestor, as appropriate. We refer you to our colleagues at the Department of Homeland Security for all ICE-related questions.”

An ICE spokesperson messaged the Queen Zone in July about the Alexandria facility, only addressing semantics and optics. 

“England Airpark is a staging facility for deportations,” an ICE spokesperson messaged. “A staging facility is where illegal aliens await their deportation flight to their destination country or transfer to a detention facility.”

The ICE spokesperson’s email included five photos of immigrants who, they claimed, had been arrested on criminal charges in Louisiana. But none of the five photos were of children. More than 8500 children have been arrested in Trump’s second term, according to the Marshall Project.

And ICE has not answered questions about unaccompanied children who will be held at or deported from the Alexandria facility – even though ICE says it does not detain unaccompanied children — except in rare instances.

It is also not clear to what countries unaccompanied children will be flown from the Alexandria ICE airport facility. And the Trump administration has moved to make sure kids don’t have lawyers to help protect them.

CNN reported last month about children appearing before immigration judges, without legal counsel – as the Trump administration has stripped migrant kids of lawyers.

“Migrant children as young as 2 are showing up at immigration courts nationwide, many without attorneys, to make their case to stay in the US and avoid deportation,” CNN reported.

Earlier this week, Sen. Wyden joined with five other senators urging Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to reverse the decision for HHS attorneys to represent unaccompanied children against the Trump administration’s own deportation machine and to restore independent legal counsel immediately. The senators wrote to Sec. Kennedy: 

“HHS cannot serve as both custodian and counsel. You must meet your statutory obligation to these children. Unaccompanied children deserve lawyers whose only loyalty is to them. We demand that you rescind this harmful policy before a single HHS attorney stands beside a child in immigration court,” the senators concluded.

Care for unaccompanied children at Alexandria ICE facility

A nonprofit called Compass Connections was originally slated to care for kids at the Alexandria ICE facility. But after Sen. Wyden wrote an investigative letter to Compass Connections CEO in June, Compass dropped out of the project without further comment.

Anovaeon LLC stepped in to staff the Alexandria facility, overseeing care of unaccompanied children. On its LinkedIn profile, Anovaeon says it has 51-200 employees, but only 14 associated members are listed on the platform. Anovaeon won a small business seat awarded by the U.S. Navy last year with a $20 billion ceiling over 10 years.

Anovaeon CEO Eric Fritz presented at the September board meeting of England Airpark, as Verite News reported:

“During the September board meeting at the airpark, Fritz touted his company’s transparency and approachability. 

“‘Our team is here today because we stand by the work that we do. We’re not going to hide our faces. We’re going to give you a pamphlet so you know who we are. You can reach out to me. The website’s there. Hit that contact button, you’ll reach me,’ he told everyone in attendance.”

Fritz messaged the Queen Zone on LinkedIn on August 17 in response to inquiry: “I appreciate your persistence, and greatly respect the journalistic duty to find the truth, but we won’t be engaging with media on anything right now.” 

On October 2, after Fritz had touted his approachability and transparency, the Queen Zone followed up with him on LinkedIn, asking, “do you have concerns about kids at Alexandria facing risks of child trafficking?” Fritz did not respond and has apparently blocked this Queen Zone reporter on LinkedIn.

ICE is siphoning taxpayer dollars, worsening the affordability crisis

As the Alexandria ICE facility for unaccompanied children is about to open, Americans are demanding accountability for how their tax dollars are being siphoned by ICE. The Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda is worsening the affordability crisis, experts told the Queen Zone.

U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, told the Queen Zone in a message:

“It is shameful that Congressional Republicans gave ICE and Border Patrol an additional $70 billion while the agencies sat on about $95 billion in unspent funds.”

Some of those taxpayer dollars are turbocharging LaSalle Corrections, as Hunterbrook Media reported: “[Billy] McConnell and his family quietly expanded their privately held, multimillion-dollar correctional empire. Last September, ICE set up a high-profile detention wing nicknamed the Louisiana Lockup at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. LaSalle bagged the contract, a deal that cemented its position as a state favorite and a beneficiary of the Trump administration’s $113.5 billion ICE detention push.” 

Wesley McConnell, who is listed as the President of the nonprofit LaSalle Family Foundation on the organization’s IRS tax filing, responded to an inquiry from Queen Zone in August about LaSalle Corrections’ post on its Facebook page, amplifying a recruiting event in Alexandria led by Anovaeon. In response to Queen Zone’s question, “What is LaSalle’s agreement with Anovaeon?” McConnell responded only with this emoticon: 🎉

Also by Nancy Levine Stearns:

• New ICE Facility for Migrant Children Raises Alarm Over Trafficking Risks
• Exclusive: Top Senate Dem Responds to Christian Faith Group’s Plea for Oversight of New ICE Facility for Kids
• A private prison company will run new ICE children’s facility–and IRS pros have questions
• DEI Isn’t Dying: These Companies Are Standing Strong Against ‘Anti-Woke’ Backlash in 2025
• Shareholders of companies worth $13 trillion vote unanimously to defeat anti-DEI proposals
• Elon Musk’s Free Speech App Isn’t So Free: Why X Froze My Account and Banned Ken Klippenstein

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