Some sources for this story are not identified. The Kingfish Project uses unnamed sources rarely; when it does, the information is corroborated by more than one person or by a document.
The England Economic and Industrial Development District (EEIDD) signed an agreement for a federal staging center that will hold families, unaccompanied children, and single women at England Airpark, then put a private entity tied to the family behind the LaSalle Corrections prison network in charge of the facility's daily operation and the records behind its federal reports.
The arrangement is important because EEIDD remains responsible to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. LaSalle controls staffing, medical services, security, food, transportation, incident reporting, and the records used to show ICE that the facility is meeting its obligations.
The cooperative endeavor agreement gives EEIDD a right to inspect the premises, but it does not expressly give the public district an audit right over LaSalle's operating books. The agreement identifies no separate administrative fee or funding line for EEIDD's contract administration and oversight.
The short version#
- EEIDD — the public body that runs England Airpark — is the federal contractor to ICE for a planned 528-bed staging center for families, unaccompanied children and single women. A private LaSalle entity operates it and controls the records behind the federal reports and bills.
- The board authorized both agreements on Feb. 26, 2026, with one commissioner abstaining. Neither agreement returned to the board afterward; by April, the Authority's own committee minutes record "nothing further for the Board to approve."
- People familiar with the matter say multiple board members have never seen the final IGSA and could not obtain it. Executive Director Ralph Hennessy says it "remains available for review by each Commissioner." Both accounts cannot be right.
- Federal money flows through EEIDD's account on its way to LaSalle. EEIDD's entire compensation is rent — about $3.04 million over five years — with no administrative fee and no express right to audit the operator's books.
- The operator's exact identity is unsettled: the contract names a Delaware LLC, while the public-facing LaSalle Family Foundation is a small Ruston nonprofit. Affiliated LaSalle companies carry a $42.75 million jury verdict and an adverse federal inspection record.
- The executed IGSA has not been released — even though the draft's own text says ICE understands it "will become a public document" once presented to the board.
The deal#
That division is written into the cooperative endeavor agreement obtained by The Kingfish Project. The document says it became effective July 13, 2026. Its lease provisions say the five-year term began July 1.
The federal agreement is an IGSA, or intergovernmental services agreement. In plain terms, ICE contracts with EEIDD, the public district, and EEIDD relies on LaSalle to perform much of the work. The public district carries the federal relationship; the private operator controls the operation.
The agreement covers approximately 10 acres and two buildings: Building 1103, at 1603 Frank Luke Blvd., and Building 1205, at 1406 Van Gossen Drive. The first year's listed rent totals $535,862.28. The first five lease years rise by 3 percent, and LaSalle holds an option for one additional five-year term, with renewal rent adjusted by whichever is greater: the increase in the facility operating charge under the IGSA or the applicable index increase.
The center is planned for 528 beds for families, unaccompanied children and single women, according to Associated Press reporting and the draft IGSA reviewed by The Kingfish Project. It is a separate project from the Alexandria Staging Facility, the roughly 400-bed site GEO Group has operated at the airport since 2013. Compass Connections, a Texas child-welfare nonprofit that appeared before the board in February, later withdrew from the project without public explanation.
How the deal was approved#
The approval is documented in the Authority's own minutes. At the board's January 30, 2025 meeting, Hennessy reported he had been in contact with ICE "regarding an increase in deportations" and had been involved in meetings with GEO and LaSalle. He also told commissioners he "spoke with Congressman Higgins while in Washington DC," and the minutes record that "the congressman wanted everything funneled through AEX." Hennessy said he had received a letter of intent and hoped to have more information at the next meeting.
On Feb. 18, 2026, the Authority's executive committee heard a "presentation and discussion regarding proposed lease with LaSalle Corrections, including information on Compass Connections and Compass United." LaSalle's Scott Sutterfield and three Compass executives attended.
The full board acted on Feb. 26, 2026. On motions by Commissioner Jamar Gailes, seconded by Commissioner Zeb Winstead, the board authorized Hennessy to execute the IGSA with DHS and ICE, then the CEA with the LaSalle Family Foundation for the two buildings and the 10 acres. Commissioner Myron Lawson Jr. abstained from both votes. The presentation before the CEA vote came from Compass Connections, not LaSalle.
Neither agreement returned to the board for final review. The economic development committee's March 23 minutes call the deal a "nice revenue generator" and put the paperwork at "about 75% complete." The Admin/Legal Committee's April 9 minutes record that the IGSA was expected to be finalized "within the next few days," with "nothing further for the Board to approve."
People familiar with the matter say multiple EEIDD board members have not seen the final IGSA and have not been able to obtain a copy in their capacity as board members.
Asked which EEIDD official reviewed and approved the final IGSA before it was signed, Hennessy wrote in an Aug. 26 response to written questions that upon receipt of the agreement from DHS and ICE, "the agreement was reviewed by members of the EEIDD administration, including the Executive Director and Deputy Director" — not the board. Asked directly whether the final IGSA has been made available to all board members, Hennessy wrote: "The EEIDD is unaware of any Commissioner being denied the ability to view the IGSA. The IGSA has been made available, and remains available for review by each Commissioner."
Hennessy's statement conflicts with those accounts. His response did not address why the agreements never returned to the board after the February votes.
The transparency question has reached Washington. Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden wrote to federal health officials in June that "a federal facility designed to hold children and families in federal custody cannot be stood up in secrecy."
Who the operator is#
The counterparty's identity is less settled than the deal's terms. The CEA names "THE LASALLE FAMILY FOUNDATION, LLC., a Delaware Limited Liability Company," represented by William McConnell, with notices to Scott Sutterfield in Ruston. A Louisiana nonprofit called the LaSalle Family Foundation also exists: a small Ruston private foundation whose IRS filings report about $135,000 in 2024 revenue and describe sending chaplains into LaSalle prisons. The CEA's tax-identification field is blank. Whether the Delaware LLC and the Louisiana nonprofit are the same organization is not stated in any document The Kingfish Project has reviewed.
The Authority's own records use the names interchangeably. The executive committee heard about a "proposed lease with LaSalle Corrections." The board's February motion named the LaSalle Family Foundation. The April committee update tracked the IGSA under the heading "LaSalle Corrections." The relationship predates this deal: in December 2023 the board authorized a lease with LaSalle Corrections for a building at 1113 Billy Mitchell Blvd. LaSalle Corrections' chief financial officer, Tim Kurpiewski, told the Associated Press the company "will be involved in operating the holding facility and ensuring compliance."
The record behind those names includes what the plaintiffs' firm calls the largest verdict ever returned against a private corrections company. In October 2025, a federal jury in Monroe awarded $42.75 million over the 2015 death of Erie Moore Sr. at Richwood Correctional Center, finding that Richwood and LaSalle Management Company were "a single, integrated enterprise." The trial judge reduced the award in May 2026. The reduced figure has not been made public, and both sides have appealed to the Fifth Circuit.
Federal inspectors have documented problems at LaSalle-run ICE facilities. A June 2026 DHS inspector general report found Winn Correctional Center in Winnfield "did not fully comply" with detention standards for use of force, medical care, food service, and environmental health and safety. Two detainees died at Winn in 2026. In Georgia, ICE stopped sending detainees to the LaSalle-owned Irwin County Detention Center in 2021 after a whistleblower complaint about gynecological procedures. A 2022 Senate subcommittee staff report found women there "appear to have been subjected to excessive, invasive, and often unnecessary gynecological procedures," and found the separate mass-hysterectomy allegation unsubstantiated.
LaSalle disputes parts of the public record. Senior corporate counsel Leah Sumrall told Hunterbrook Media that "a significant amount of the information you plan to report is inaccurate," without identifying specifics, and the company argues on appeal that the single-enterprise finding rested on insufficient evidence.
Who runs it — and who answers for it#
The CEA designates LaSalle to operate, manage, and supervise the Airpark Staging Center “on behalf of and for the EEIDD” to fulfill the obligations of the IGSA between EEIDD and ICE. It says all IGSA agreements remain between ICE and EEIDD. LaSalle is described as an independent contractor with no contractual privity with ICE.
That structure leaves a basic accountability question: when the federal government needs an answer about staffing, medical care, an incident, or a bill, EEIDD is the public entity on the contract, but LaSalle is the entity running the facility and maintaining much of the underlying information.
The CEA assigns LaSalle nearly everything that makes the facility run: booking and intake, housing assignments, perimeter security, staffing and background checks, PREA screening, medical and behavioral health care, food service, transportation, and the records management and reporting systems that ICE and DHS require. It also requires LaSalle to cooperate with ICE inspections, implement corrective-action plans, and prepare and timely submit the reports required by ICE, DHS, the Office of Inspector General, and the Government Accountability Office.
The IGSA reviewed by The Kingfish Project places the federal performance structure around EEIDD as the service provider. The federal government can inspect services during operations and after completion, use scheduled or unscheduled surveillance, document noncompliance, and apply deductions to invoices. The IGSA states that only the contracting officer may take formal action against the service provider for unsatisfactory performance.
The CEA assigns the consequences of operator failures back to LaSalle. Its indemnity provisions specifically list operational noncompliance under the IGSA, PREA violations, medical malpractice, Service Contract Act violations, staffing failures, and IGSA performance deficiencies attributable to the operator.
What EEIDD can inspect#
The contract does not leave EEIDD without access to the property. Section 2.12.1 gives EEIDD and its designated agents the right to enter the premises with at least 24 hours' advance written notice, at all reasonable times, “for any purposes of inspection.” The condition is that the entry cannot interfere with LaSalle's quiet use and enjoyment.
Entry is not an audit. The CEA's Article VIII audit clause says EEIDD is subject to audit by the Louisiana Legislative Auditor and by an independent auditor that EEIDD may choose upon request. The CEA does not expressly give EEIDD an audit right over LaSalle's operating books.
The distinction matters because LaSalle is responsible for the systems and information behind the federal reports. The CEA requires it to maintain records-management systems and reporting interfaces. The IGSA requires the service provider to maintain quality control and makes the service provider responsible for subcontractor performance.
The federal agreement gives ICE more detailed oversight tools. The government may inspect the provider's performance, review invoices, reduce payment for inadequate performance, and pursue repayment of overpayments. The IGSA also contains remedies for defective pricing data, including repayment, interest, and a penalty for knowingly submitting incomplete, inaccurate, or noncurrent data.
The money#
The CEA's financial provision is short. Section 2.1.14, titled “Revenues and Billing,” says: “All IGSA revenues shall be distributed to THE LASALLE FAMILY FOUNDATION through this Agreement.” The word “invoice” does not appear in the CEA, and it contains no accounting schedule, withholding reserve, or reconciliation procedure for ICE deductions. The draft IGSA identifies EEIDD, not LaSalle, as the federal contractor and payment recipient, and it says a subcontractor cannot submit an invoice directly to the agency.
Executive Director Ralph Hennessy filled in the mechanics in a written response to The Kingfish Project. "Invoices for services provided under the IGSA are compiled by the EEIDD in coordination with LaSalle Family Foundation through a separate Cooperative Endeavor Agreement, and submitted to ICE," he wrote. "Payments from ICE are electronically transferred to the EEIDD." He declined to disclose the account number, citing financial security. Federal funds pass through EEIDD's own account before reaching LaSalle, though neither document describes what happens to them once they arrive there.
Asked what procedures EEIDD uses to verify LaSalle's staffing, incident, wage, medical, and performance records, Hennessy pointed back to the same documents that create the reporting requirement rather than describing a separate check: "Both the IGSA with DHS/ICE and the CEA between the EEIDD and LaSalle Family Foundation provide for the required reporting protocols." Neither agreement gives EEIDD its own audit right over LaSalle's records; Hennessy's response did not identify one.
Rent is the only compensation EEIDD identified for carrying that role. Asked what administrative fee or other funding it receives for serving as the federal contractor and overseeing LaSalle's performance, Hennessy cited the lease payments instead: $1,333,040.16 for the 10-acre ground lease, $1,003,018.40 for Building 1103, and $708,896.88 for Building 1205 over the CEA's initial five-year term — a combined $3,044,955.44. The agreement identifies no separate line for contract administration, records retention, audit response, or subcontractor oversight.
The agreement also addresses public property, maintenance, and tax treatment. EEIDD remains responsible under the lease for maintaining and repairing the HVAC systems in Buildings 1103 and 1205, along with the roof, foundation, and structural walls and supports; LaSalle handles ordinary maintenance otherwise. EEIDD owns the FF&E existing at the start of the agreement, which LaSalle must maintain and return. Payments to EEIDD under the agreement are not subject to taxation under the cited Louisiana statutes. What that treatment means for the school board's and sheriff's collections is not stated in the agreement; The Kingfish Project will report what the parish records show.
The exit#
The CEA links the private operating agreement to the federal agreement. Termination or expiration of the IGSA may terminate LaSalle's lease and operating obligations. LaSalle's surrender, turnover and transition, recordkeeping, inspection, compliance, and indemnification obligations survive.
Hennessy's response did not describe a transition plan. Asked what EEIDD's plan and estimated cost would be if ICE terminates the IGSA, he wrote: "The authority of the EEIDD to operate the Airpark Staging Center is through the IGSA. In the event the IGSA is terminated by either party, operation of the Airpark Staging Center will cease on the effective date of termination." His answer addresses only the legal authority to operate. It does not say what happens to the buildings, the lease, LaSalle's staff, or any cost EEIDD would carry once operations stop. The executed IGSA, which would state the termination notice period and any transition obligations, has not been provided.
Hennessy separately confirmed EEIDD notified its insurance provider. "The EEIDD's insurance coverage provider is aware of the operation of the Airpark Staging Center under the IGSA, as well as the CEA between the EEIDD and LaSalle Family Foundation providing for the operational responsibilities of the Airpark Staging Center and indemnification of the EEIDD in the event one of the above-referenced claims is made," he wrote. He did not say when the insurer was notified or confirm the insurer approved coverage for the specific risks named in the question — operational failures, PREA claims, medical incidents, staffing violations, federal penalties, and clawback demands. His answer describes the CEA's indemnification clause rather than the insurer's own confirmation.
What the Authority says#
The Authority's case for the deal is economic. Hennessy told Louisiana Radio Network in July: "There's about 200 jobs created, and then there's a nice rent check that they're going to pay us; a little over $500,000 a year." ICE describes the site as a staging area rather than a detention center. The CEA itself describes custody "for an estimated 72 hours," with actual lengths of stay determined by ICE's operational requirements, and describes the buildings as "temporary residential accommodations for families and unaccompanied minors participating in the repatriation program."
The CEA states the district was created to use the former England Air Force Base and available government assistance to replace and enhance the base's economic benefits with diversified activities. The new agreement puts a federal immigration operation inside that public economic-development framework — authorized by one official's signature, with the full board's own account of what it saw still in dispute.
Timeline: how we got here#
- Dec. 14, 2023 — The board authorizes a lease with LaSalle Corrections for a building at 1113 Billy Mitchell Blvd. (minutes)
- Jan. 30, 2025 — Hennessy tells commissioners he has been in contact with ICE "regarding an increase in deportations," has met with GEO and LaSalle, and spoke with Congressman Higgins, who "wanted everything funneled through AEX." He reports a letter of intent in hand. (minutes)
- Oct. 20–21, 2025 — A federal jury in Monroe returns the $42.75 million verdict against LaSalle Management and Richwood Correctional Center in the Erie Moore Sr. case.
- Feb. 18, 2026 — The executive committee hears a presentation on the "proposed lease with LaSalle Corrections," with Compass Connections present. (minutes)
- Feb. 26, 2026 — The board authorizes Hennessy to execute the IGSA and the CEA. Lawson abstains from both votes. (minutes)
- March 23, 2026 — A committee calls the deal a "nice revenue generator"; paperwork "about 75% complete." (minutes)
- April 9, 2026 — Committee minutes record the IGSA nearing finalization with "nothing further for the Board to approve." (minutes)
- May 2026 — The trial judge reduces the Moore award; the reduced figure is not public. Cross-appeals follow.
- June 2026 — DHS's inspector general publishes OIG-26-08 on Winn; Sen. Wyden writes that a facility for children "cannot be stood up in secrecy."
- July 1, 2026 — The CEA's five-year lease term begins.
- July 2026 — The AP reports the 528-bed plan and Compass Connections' withdrawal; Hennessy touts "about 200 jobs" and the rent check.
- July 13, 2026 — The CEA becomes effective.
- Aug. 25–26, 2026 — The Kingfish Project sends written questions; Hennessy responds. The executed IGSA is not provided.
What we don't know yet#
In the spirit of receipts over rhetoric, here is what we don't know: the executed IGSA's per-diem rates, guaranteed minimums, termination notice period, and transition obligations; whether the executed version differs from the draft; whether the CEA's Delaware LLC and the Ruston nonprofit are the same legal person, and which one employs the facility's staff; the reduced amount of the Moore judgment; what the tax treatment means in dollars for the school board and sheriff; and whether EEIDD's insurer has confirmed coverage for the specific risks the agreement creates.
The documents#
This story is based on the executed cooperative endeavor agreement between EEIDD and The LaSalle Family Foundation, obtained by The Kingfish Project; the July 2025 draft IGSA reviewed by The Kingfish Project; EEIDD board and committee minutes from January 30, 2025, February 18, 2026, February 26, 2026, March 23, 2026, April 9, 2026, and December 14, 2023; and Executive Director Ralph Hennessy's written response of Aug. 26, 2026, to questions emailed Aug. 25. EEIDD did not provide the executed IGSA or identify any differences between it and the draft. The reduced amount of the Moore judgment, the identity of the CEA's Delaware LLC, and the executed IGSA's per-diem, termination, and transition terms remain open questions, and this story will be updated as records are produced.
