Protesters rallied against the so-called "Speedway Slammer" outside the Miami Correctional Facility on Aug. 12 after the Trump administration announced plans to use 1,000 detention beds in the prison to house undocumented immigrants.

The transition marks the Trump administration's second state partnership to house undocumented immigrants arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement as the agency ramps up deportation efforts. The first, "Alligator Alcatraz" in Florida, has already been criticized for its reportedly cramped conditions and bug infestations.

The shift would make Miami Correctional Facility one of the largest detention centers in the Midwest, but the maximum security prison has been plagued with complaints for years. The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana has filed more than two dozen lawsuits on behalf of inmates of the prison who allege they were confined to dark cells and only let out for brief periods a few times per week.

Gov. Mike Braun has repeatedly emphasized his administration's commitment to "fully cooperate" with the federal crackdown on illegal immigration

“We are proud to work with President Trump and Secretary Noem as they remove the worst of the worst with this innovative partnership,” Braun said in a Department of Homeland Security press release Aug. 5. “Indiana is taking a comprehensive and collaborative approach to combating illegal immigration and will continue to lead the way among states.”

The small group of protesters spent an hour waving signs at cars traveling along U.S. Route 31 in Miami County north of Indianapolis, which spurred regular choruses of honks from semi-trucks to sedans.

Stephanie Graf-Gilliland, chair of the Miami County Democrats and organizer of the protest, said Trump represented a growing movement of racism in the U.S.

"This president has made racism fashionable again," Graf-Gilliland said.

She said she believes Trump's deportation efforts violate the law and that she felt a duty to do something about it as a veteran.

"When you serve the country, then it stops being about you," she said.

Though Graf-Gilliland is local, several protesters came from across the state. One, Purdue student Davis Avera, showed up to the protest in a George Washington costume.

"They were revolutionaries, and I think we should bring that spirit back," the 22-year-old said of the Founding Fathers.

Avera was one of few young people at the protest, a fact he was disappointed by.

"We lost how to protest after Vietnam for some reason," he said.

But rather than pointing the blame at the young folks who stayed home, Avera said the system disincentivizes political action, specifically pointing out gerrymandering, the Electoral College and what he sees as out-of-touch political parties. For example, Avera chose to vote in Indiana when he preferred to vote in his home state of Texas because he was confused by the lack of a "student" option when filling out a section of his absentee ballot application that asked why he was voting by mail.

Avera was not the only person with a piece of history to share, however. Clifford Kindy, 75, said he was named after Clifford Nakadagawa, a close friend of his parents who was forcibly placed in a Japanese internment camp during World War II.

He said he believes detention centers operate in the same spirit as the Japanese internment camps because both rises from a manufactured enmity against a minority group.

"The lack of forgiveness, the lack of mercy, the lack of compassion, that kind of thing is what otherizes people," he said.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Protesters flock to Miami Correctional Facility in Indiana to protest Trump's 'Speedway Slammer'