A coalition of activist groups in Louisville rallied outside of an office on South 3rd Street Monday morning where they say immigrants are being detained during routine check-ins.
The office building, located at 931 S. 3rd Street, houses the local Intensive Supervision Appearance Program, or ISAP, office. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement program is supposed to be an alternative to detention, where people are monitored through electronic tracking, regular check-ins and home visits while their immigration cases progress.
But activists say some people who go to their check-ins are leaving in handcuffs instead.
At the rally across the street from the ISAP office, Showing Up For Racial Justice Louisville’s Carla Wallace said immigration officials are taking advantage of an already vulnerable population. The local advocacy group’s cofounder said detaining people at ISAP office meetings puts them “in a really precarious position.”
“You can be in trouble if you don’t sign in, you can be in trouble if you do,” Wallace said. “So we want people who may not know that people are being detained here to be able to make an informed decision.”
Wallace said she personally escorted families to meetings at the ISAP Office in 2017, during President Donald Trump’s first administration, and she never saw people getting arrested.
Wallace’s group runs the Louisville Community Defense Network, which trains residents on how to support people who are being detained. They also have a 24/7 hotline that immigrants can call if they’re confronted by ICE agents.
The group provided LPM News with two photos from earlier this month of people in handcuffs being placed into unmarked vehicles near the ISAP office. LPM has not independently verified the details around these alleged arrests.
The person who took the photos, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said she was working in a nearby office when she noticed several people being led out of the ISAP office in handcuffs. One photo shows an agent carrying a gun and a badge on his belt and wearing a shirt with a small “thin blue line” emblem on the arm.
“I feel powerless,” the person said. “It’s a lot more scary than the regular marked police, this is really the secret police. They can do anything to you, so I wasn’t willing to go up and confront them.”
The person said the photos were taken on June 4, and they also witnessed more people being arrested on June 10.
There have been reports of similar detention from other U.S. cities recently.
Three people were detained at the ISAP office in Chicago on Father’s Day, according to television news station WGN9. And at least six people were arrested in Grand Rapids, Mich. when attending similar check-ins earlier this month.
The ISAP office in Louisville is managed by BI, Inc., an electronic monitoring company owned by The GEO Group, a major private prison company and ICE contractor.
LPM attempted to speak with a manager of the office Monday morning. The manager directed all questions to Monica Hook, vice president of communication for GEO Care, a division of The GEO Group.
Hook did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
Activists with Showing Up for Racial Justice Louisville, the Democratic Socialists of America and Forward Justice Action Network organized the rally outside the ISAP office Monday morning.
Also in attendance were Fairness Campaign Executive Director Chris Hartman and Metro Council Members J.P. Lyninger and Besty Ruhe, both Democrats.
Ruhe said the area she represents, District 21, has a large number of immigrant families. She said the Trump administration isn’t upholding “liberty and justice for all,” but is acting with “cruelty.”
“Especially to those least able to defend themselves,” Ruhe said. “Detaining and deporting people who show up voluntarily to immigration check-in’s is the height of cruelty.”
Various speakers called on Louisville Metro not to cooperate with immigration enforcement.
