A former contract detention officer at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Louisiana has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a woman while she was held in federal custody, a case that adds to mounting scrutiny of conditions inside privately run immigration detention centers.
David Courvelle, 56, entered a guilty plea Monday, December 29, 2025, in federal court to one count of sexual abuse of a ward or individual in federal custody. The charge carries a potential sentence of up to 15 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
According to court records, Courvelle was employed as a contract detention officer at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center between January 1 and July 30. The facility is operated by Geo Group Inc., ICE’s largest private prison contractor.
Prosecutors said Courvelle engaged in repeated sexual contact with a Nicaraguan woman detained at the facility over several months. Court filings describe the conduct as occurring while the woman was imprisoned and under Courvelle’s authority, a dynamic that federal law deems inherently coercive and criminal, regardless of any claimed consent.
Investigators alleged that Courvelle smuggled gifts to the woman, including food, jewelry, letters and photographs of her daughter, and arranged for other staff members to act as lookouts to avoid detection. In July, facility staff observed Courvelle and the detainee exiting a janitorial closet, prompting officials to transfer him to another unit. He resigned later that month.
Courvelle initially denied any relationship during a September interview with investigators from the ICE Office of the Inspector General but confessed approximately 30 minutes into the interview, prosecutors said.
He was released on a $10,000 bond. Sentencing is scheduled for April 10.
Broader concerns over ICE detention practices
The case emerges amid growing reports of abuse and neglect inside ICE detention facilities nationwide, particularly as the Trump administration has expanded a mass deportation campaign. Advocacy groups say the scale and speed of detentions have exacerbated longstanding oversight and accountability gaps, especially in facilities operated by for-profit contractors.
Fourteen of the 20 largest ICE detention centers in the United States are located in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, a region immigrant advocates often refer to as “deportation alley.” Most of these facilities are run by private prison companies.
For-profit firms operate roughly 90 percent of ICE detention centers nationwide. In Louisiana, all but one of the state’s nine ICE facilities are privately managed. Geo Group, which operates multiple ICE detention centers, reported third-quarter revenue of $682.3 million in 2025, about $80 million more than during the same period the previous year.
More than 65,000 people are currently detained in ICE custody across the country, according to data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.
Legal challenges and federal oversight
The guilty plea comes just weeks after a coalition of civil rights organizations filed federal complaints against the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Jena, Louisiana, another Geo Group-operated facility. Those complaints, filed on behalf of one woman and three transgender detainees, alleged widespread sexual abuse, harassment, forced labor, retaliation and denial of medical care between 2023 and 2025.
The filings accused a former assistant warden, correctional officers and ICE personnel of engaging in abusive conduct, including sexual assault, forcible touching, denial of essential medication and retaliatory placement in solitary confinement.
Elsewhere, detainees have submitted sworn statements alleging severe mistreatment at large ICE facilities in Texas, including routine physical abuse that resulted in hospitalizations. Federal judges have also intervened in recent months to order improvements at temporary detention sites in New York and Chicago, where detainees allegedly faced overcrowded conditions, inadequate sanitation and insufficient access to food and medical care.
ICE has not yet publicly commented on Courvelle’s case. Requests for comment from the agency remain pending.
Legal experts say the prosecution underscores both the criminal liability individual officers face for abuse of detainees and the broader civil and constitutional questions surrounding federal reliance on private prison contractors to detain immigrants.
