Filth, Thirst, & Defiance: Adelanto Detainees Denied Basic Dignity as ICE Ignores Court Order

At the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, California’s largest immigration detention facility, people are still being denied basic conditions of decency, months after a federal judge ordered the government to fix them.

In July, U.S. District Judge Sunshine S. Sykes ordered sweeping reforms. She found that detainees were likely to succeed on claims that the government violated their constitutional and disability rights. The order required clean drinking water, sanitary meals, proper medical care, mold remediation, and at least four hours of daily outdoor time. Three months later, independent court monitor Kellie Wasko reports that the government remains largely out of compliance.

Her findings are damning. She observed mold in “every general population shower room” of the West building, along with “larvae on the floors.” Mattresses were cracked and worn out. Ventilation ducts were filthy, and detainees told her “someone is always getting cold or sick because of the particles coming from the ducts.” A second monitor, assigned to examine medical care, was blocked from entering the facility and from seeing medical records.

Attorneys for the detainees describe people going three to seven hours without water. The tap water available to them reportedly tastes like metal and smells like fish. At least one man collapsed and was hospitalized for dehydration. Workers allegedly painted over mold instead of removing it.

“That is defiance of a federal court order, and people are being hospitalized because of it,” said Rebecca Brown of Public Counsel. Angelica Salas of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights accused ICE of “thumbing its nose at the justice system,” even on “things as basic as providing clean water.”

This is not new. At least four people have died at Adelanto. A 2018 federal inspector general’s report documented guards who failed to stop detainees from hanging braided-sheet “nooses.” Nationwide, Alvaro M. Huerta noted, deaths in ICE custody have reached “a record-breaking 58 people under the current administration.”

“Human lives are at stake,” Huerta warned. Clergy who walked 96 miles from Adelanto to Los Angeles put it plainly: nearly 2,000 people remain inside, “whose lives are still ours to fight for.”

Link: LA Times