This case challenges the repurposing of a notorious, inhumane, and shuttered unit at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, also known as Angola, as an immigration detention center used to indefinitely detain people as punishment for past crimes for which they have already served their time.

Incarceration at Angola, regarded as the “Bloodiest Prison in America,” has historically been regarded as a form of extraordinarily severe punishment. It is the largest maximum-security prison in the United States and includes a Death Row. Its sordid history includes the fact that it was a slave plantation. Even after slavery had long been abolished, Angola was described as coming “probably as close to slavery as any person could come” and “Hell on Earth.” In 2021, a federal court found that inmates in Angola were being subjected to cruel and unusual punishment, in violation of the United States Constitution. And in 2023, a court ordered the removal of juveniles from Angola due to rampant abuses perpetrated against them.

In 2025, the U.S. government converted a unit at Angola to an immigration detention center called the “Louisiana Lockup” for the illegal purpose of prolonging immigrant detention. Oscar Hernandez Amaya is now detained there indefinitely.

Oscar won protection from deportation to his native country of Honduras when an immigration judge found he would likely be tortured if sent back. But the government refuses to release him from detention, claiming the authority to lock him away in punishing conditions indefinitely while it searches for a third country to accept him.

Oscar’s liberty is of extraordinary importance to this country: if he stays behind bars
indefinitely, the Constitution becomes nothing more than a house of cards.

What is the legal argument in this case?

Under the Due Process Clause of the U.S. Constitution’s Fifth Amendment, the only reasons someone can be held in immigration detention are to control danger to the community or risk of flight prior to removal. But Oscar’s removal to a third country is not reasonably foreseeable and he is not a danger to the comuunity. Because his detention cannot be for the purpose of controlling flight or danger prior to removal, it violates substantive due process.

Oscar’s indefinite detention also violates procedural due process under the U.S. Constitution’s Fifth Amendment. He is not being given access to procedures to challenge his detention, including an adversarial hearing and appointed counsel.

Detention in Angola also violates the Constitution’s Double Jeopardy Clause, which prohibits double punishment for a crime for which punishment has already been enacted. Oscar’s supposedly civil detention at Angola is so harsh as to effectively amount to criminal punishment.

What is the status of this case?

The case remains pending.