ICE Facilities in California ‘Cruel and Inhumane,’ Bonta Says

Immigration detention centers in California have become alarmingly overcrowded, unsanitary, and inhumane, state Attorney General Rob Bonta said Friday at a news conference regarding a new report on the facilities.

Detainees reported a lack of access to clean drinking water, inadequate toilets, and delays in medical care even for urgent matters, Bonta said.

“This is an emergency. The people in these detention centers deserve basic humane treatment,” Bonta told reporters. “They’re not getting it.”

By state law, the California Department of Justice is tasked with periodically reviewing and reporting on civil immigration facilities located in the state. For the latest report, state officials documented conditions at the seven facilities operating in the state last year, which are run by private operators that contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

A representative of the Department of Homeland Security didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The state’s reviews in previous years found that the facilities were substandard, Bonta said, but as a result of the aggressive deportation push by the Trump administration, conditions are getting worse. The state found violations of ICE’s own detention standards at all seven active facilities, according to the report.

The newly opened California City facility, located about 100 miles north of Los Angeles, was “particularly egregious,” Bonta said. Multiple women his team interviewed there broke down crying when describing their living conditions there, he said.

“These are people who, in many instances, had been living as productive members of society, working and contributing to the economy, dutifully checking in with ICE, who are suddenly snatched up and detained,” Bonta said. “That kind of punitive atmosphere is not only cruel and inhumane, it defies ICE’s own detention standards, protections that exist for a reason.”

The population at the facilities has surged, the report found, in line with the Trump administration’s aggressive push to apprehend, detain, and deport noncitizens.

Multiple lawsuits have been filed over conditions at immigration detention facilities, including those in California. Those suits have alleged unsanitary conditions, lack of medical care, and inadequate access to attorneys.