A federal judge this week ordered ICE and the Department of Homeland Security to provide “constitutionally adequate healthcare” to people detained in California’s newest and largest immigration detention center.
In her Tuesday ruling, U.S. District Judge Maxine M. Chesney also required an external monitor be appointed to ensure compliance, including through review of medical records and on-site inspection and interviews with patients and staff at the California City Detention Facility in the Mojave Desert.
Chesney ordered the government to provide detainees with timely and confidential access to attorneys, temperature-appropriate clothing and blankets free of charge and access to adequate outdoor recreation spaces for at least an hour a day.
The ruling comes in the case of seven detainees who in November filed a federal class-action lawsuit in the Northern District of California against Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement alleging medical neglect, unsanitary living conditions and abusive treatment by the staff at the facility, which opened in August.
Ryan Gustin, a spokesman for CoreCivic, which operates the facility, said they “work closely with our government partner to ensure we are providing all required services and meeting applicable standards.”
Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin called the judge’s order “unnecessary and superfluous given DHS’s medical policy goes above and beyond.”
“All detainees are provided with proper meals, water, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with their family members and lawyers,” McLaughlin said. “Ensuring the safety, security, and well-being of individuals in our custody is a top priority at ICE. ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens.”
The lawsuit was brought by the Prison Law Office, the American Civil Liberties Union, the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice and Keker, Van Nest & Peters.
“The government wanted to grind the wheels of justice to a halt and continue its horrifying medical neglect and denial of fundamental needs like warm clothes and blankets, and meaningful access to attorneys to the more than one thousand souls languishing at this facility,” Steven Ragland, a Keker, Van Nest & Peters partner representing the plaintiffs, said in a statement.
“We are incredibly grateful that the Court appreciated the immediate, irreparable harm individuals at California City face and ordered meaningful relief.”
The former prison turned detention center has faced a growing number of complaints since it opened in August, as the Trump administration pushed to expand detention capacity nationwide.
At the time, the city manager warned CoreCivic “that the building is unsafe and violates the fire code because its construction prevents radio signals from transmitting from key areas,” the lawsuit pointed out.
By the next month, immigrants inside the 2,500-capacity facility had launched a hunger strike protesting conditions.
In December, attorneys filed an emergency motion asking a federal judge to order ICE to provide lifesaving medical care to two plaintiffs at the facility. One man with a serious heart condition had not seen a cardiologist, and the other needed needed urgent care related to what he feared was prostate cancer. ICE later agreed to provide medical care to the men.
In a statement, McLaughlin said “it is a longstanding practice to provide comprehensive medical care from the moment an alien enters ICE custody.”
“This includes medical, dental, and mental health services as available, and access to medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care,” she said. “This is the best healthcare than many aliens have received in their entire lives.”
Last month, U.S. Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff conducted an oversight visit of the facility and decried the inadequacy of medical care there.
“The appointment of a monitor is hugely important because we have already in this case seen ICE violate a court order to provide one very sick man with appropriate medical care,” Cody Harris, a Keker, Van Nest & Peters partner, said in a statement.
Harris said most of people held at the detention facility “have no criminal record whatsoever, and yet the government treats them worse than the highest-security criminals.”
“We will continue fighting to improve the conditions at California City until they comply with ICE’s constitutional obligations,” he said.
Dilmer “Loba” Lovos Mendez, who has been in ICE detention for two years, including around six months at California City, said he felt “deep gratitude for these initial court steps,” adding that “people’s lives depend on it.”
“It is outrageous that it took a lawsuit to say that we deserve adequate medical care while ICE holds us here,” she said in a statement. “I hope that not only the courts but everyone who cares about humanity continues to take action to end these abuses.”