Lawsuit alleges horrifying conditions at California migrant detention center

A new federal lawsuit alleges horrifying conditions at California’s largest migrant detention facility, including sewage bubbles rising from shower drains and detainees being forced to use dirty bandages to wrap open sores.

The American Civil Liberties Union is among the groups representing seven men at a previously mothballed prison in the desert in California City.

The lawsuit, filed on Wednesday, alleges inadequate medical care for serious issues like cancer, life-threatening heart conditions and diabetes, as well as neglect of people with disabilities and forced isolation.

The complaint also claims dirty housing units, inadequate food and water, very cold temperatures, restrictions on family visits and delays in access to lawyers. Detainees are additionally reporting encroachment on their freedom of religion, including confiscation of prayer mats, head coverings even holy texts.

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“ICE is playing with people’s lives, and they treat people like they’re trash, like they’re nothing,” one of the plaintiffs, Sokhean Keo, said in a statement on Thursday. “Some of the people I’m detained with don’t even have soap — they take showers without soap — and they’re losing weight because they don’t have enough to eat.”

Severe understaffing and crumbling infrastructure were also reported at the facility, where men were told when it first opened to clean out dirty cells and housing units full of garbage and “toilets with fecal matter still in them” without being given cleaning supplies.

The complaint argues that the detention center has worse conditions than a prison for criminals. Detainees are held in their cells for much of the day with nothing to keep them occupied, “resulting in a widespread sense of hopelessness, desperation and, in some cases, self-harm and suicidal ideation.”

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“No human being, immigrant or not, should be subjected to these horrendous conditions,” another plaintiff, Gustavo Guevara, said in a statement. “I hope society becomes aware of the abuse, neglect, indifference, and the overall unjust treatment we are being subjected to, and does not turn a blind eye. It’s not right that because we’re immigrants they feel they can treat us this way.”

Fernando Gomez Ruiz, a diabetic, was eating at a food truck outside a Home Depot when he was detained by ICE last month. He said he has been denied regular doses of insulin, “leading to elevated blood sugar levels and a large, oozing ulcer on the bottom of his foot” that he covers with soiled bandages because clean wraps are not provided at the facility, according to the lawsuit, which stresses that he fears he will lose his foot.

The prison was shut down in 2023, but ICE contracted to reopen the facility as a migrant detention center with a bed capacity of 2,560. Officials began sending migrants to the facility starting in late August.

“The treatment of the people held in the California City facility is yet another example of ICE’s utter disregard for the rights and dignity of people in its custody,” Kyle Virgien, senior staff attorney at the ACLU’s National Prison Project, said in a statement. “Access to necessities like food, basic medical care, and counsel aren’t mere suggestions – they are constitutionally protected rights that all people in detention are entitled to.”

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It currently holds about 800 people, and it is expected to reach full capacity early next year, as the Trump administration continues to target migrant communities as part of the president’s mass deportation agenda.

Department of Homeland Security Spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin denied the allegations, purporting that ICE “has higher detention standards” than most prisons.

“All detainees are provided with 3 meals a day, clean water, clothing, bedding, showers, and toiletries, and have access to phones to communicate with their family members and lawyers. Certified dieticians evaluate meals,” she said in a statement.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.