Phillip May, president and CEO of Entergy Louisiana, speaks during a groundbreaking ceremony for Smalling Substation near Rayville, La., Friday, Jun 27, 2025. The substation will serve the Meta Richland Parish Data Center, which is now under construction.

This story was published in partnership with The Intercept, a newsroom committed to rigorous, adversarial journalism in the public interest.

Less than two weeks ago, in a scathing rebuke, a federal judge ordered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to release a Louisiana grandfather who’d suffered a heart attack while in ICE custody.

The man, Akram Mahmoud Omar, 77, lived in the U.S. for 50 years until ICE abruptly seized him during a routine check-in last October and soon sent him to “Camp 57,” the ICE detention camp within the notorious state prison in Angola, Louisiana. 

The stress of the poor conditions there contributed to Omar’s heart attack, according to the habeas petition he filed in April. On May 29, a federal judge found ICE had violated Omar’s constitutional rights and ordered his immediate release. 

Then on Monday, just 10 days after his release, ICE seized Omar again and tried to whisk the still-recovering man onto a deportation flight the next morning, according to his lawyer Ken Mayeaux. 

Following an emergency motion from Mayeaux, the same judge again ordered ICE to release Omar and cautioned the agency not to make another deportation attempt.

“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (‘ICE’) shall IMMEDIATELY RELEASE Omar from ICE custody,” said the Monday order from Judge Brian Jackson in Louisiana’s Middle District. “ICE shall not RE-DETAIN or REMOVE Omar from the United States during the pendency of Omar’s Emergency Motion to Enforce the Court’s May 29 Order.”

In the May order, the judge found that ICE had violated Omar’s constitutional rights by unlawfully detaining him and denying him the chance to prepare for an orderly departure.

ICE directly defied that order by seizing him without warning for immediate deportation, the emergency motion alleges, blocking him from arranging his affairs or even saying goodbye, the emergency motion for Omar’s release said.

“Petitioner’s re-detention and planned removal are in direct contempt of this Court’s prior order,” reads the June 8 emergency motion. The government “lied to Mr. Omar, telling him and his family that he did not need to report to ICE/ERO” — ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division — “until December, but now, Respondent is racing to remove petitioner within hours.”

In a statement to The Lens and The Intercept, ICE spokesperson Angela Vicknair said, “ICE complies with all court orders, and any allegation that a judge’s orders were not followed are categorically false.”

WINNSBORO, La. (KNOE) – Louisiana State Police say a 79-year-old Winnsboro woman died Tuesday, June 9 after her vehicle crossed the centerline and hit a tree.

LSP says Huff was driving a 2025 Toyota Crown east on Louisiana Highway 867 near Louisiana Highway 868 shortly before 7 p.m. when the crash occurred.

According to authorities, Huff was wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash, but suffered fatal injuries. She died at the scene. A juvenile front seat passenger, who was also wearing a seatbelt, received minor injuries and was treated at an area hospital.

Impairment is not suspected. Routine toxicology samples were collected and will be submitted for analysis. The crash remains under investigation.