California Democratic Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff visited the newest and largest ICE detention center in the state, a former prison in Kern County.<\/p>\n
CALIFORNIA CITY, Calif. \u2014 This article was initially published by CalMatters. Read this investigation and others at\u00a0CalMatters.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n Democratic U.S. Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff today conducted an oversight visit at the state\u2019s newest and largest immigrant detention center, located in California City<\/a>, about 100 miles north of Los Angeles.\u00a0<\/p>\n In remarks to reporters, both highlighted what they described as inadequate medical care at the site.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe most frequent feedback we got was the inadequacy of the medical care they are receiving,\u201d said Schiff. He described meeting a diabetic detainee who he said has not received treatment for her condition in two months. \u201cThat\u2019s frightening,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n More than 1,400 people are currently held at the California City Detention Facility, run by the private for-profit prison company CoreCivic in the middle of the Mojave Desert. It opened in late August under a contract with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement with a capacity to hold 2,560 detainees.<\/p>\n Previously, CoreCivic operated the site as a state prison. The Newsom administration ended the contract in 2024 as it closed several state prisons because of California\u2019s\u00a0declining incarcerated population<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re going to have to do something very different if they\u2019re going to meet the medical needs of the people here, let alone adding another 1,000 people,\u201d Padilla said.<\/p>\n Schiff said he spoke to people who described smelly water and a detainee who described a moldy sandwich. Both Padilla and Schiff stressed that people were being held in prison-like conditions despite many not having committed any crimes and only civil immigration offenses.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not a prison, despite the environment, so we have an equal concern for mental health care,\u201d Padilla said. \u201cYou can imagine the experience of being detained, being threatened with deportation and the impact on you as an individual and the impact on your extended family can be traumatic. We found that mental health care here is also lacking.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Schiff said many of the people he talked to inside were arrested at their immigration appointments. \u201cSo they were doing what they were supposed to do to become citizens or establish a lawful presence and at those appointments they were picked up and separated from family,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He also described meeting a man from Afghanistan who said he assisted the U.S. military there and would be killed by the Taliban if returned to his country.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey want to deport him back to Afghanistan. He was given alternatives like Sudan and elsewhere to places where he has no ties. These are the stories that we were hearing,\u201d said Schiff. \u00a0<\/p>\n Before entering the facility, Schiff and Padilla said they were conducting the inspection to \u201crespond to complaints and questions from constituents about the conditions that detainees are in\u201d and to \u201csee firsthand what this facility is like.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOn this anniversary of the second Trump administration, one year in, there are a couple things we already know his term is defined by: the cruelty and over-aggressiveness of the mass deportation agenda,\u201d said Padilla.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a necessary part of our oversight,\u201d said Schiff. \u201cWe\u2019ve all been working with constituents who have been detained here or are detained here and have described the falling conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n
By law, members of Congress have a right to conduct unannounced inspections of immigration detention centers. But Padilla\u2019s spokesman said the senators arranged the visit in advance.\u00a0<\/p>\n In July, House Democrats sued the administration over a policy requiring seven days advance notice for visits, which they argued violated federal law. In December 2025, federal Judge Jia Cobb in Washington, D.C., temporarily blocked the seven-day notice policy while the case plays out in court.<\/p>\n Following a deadly shooting incident involving an immigration officer in Minneapolis, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem issued a new memorandum on Jan. 8 re-imposing the seven-day notice requirement. On Jan. 19, Cobb\u00a0did not immediately block<\/a> this new, reinstated policy, concluding that the Jan. 8 directive was a \u201cnew agency action\u201d that required a different legal challenge than the one previously decided.\u00a0<\/p>\n When President Donald Trump\u00a0took office a year ago<\/a>, roughly 40,000 people were being held in immigration detention across the nation. By the start of December, that number had risen by almost 75%, with nearly 66,000 people held in immigration detention across the United States and the system reportedly capable of holding 70,000 people on any given day \u2014 the highest level in U.S. history, according to government data.<\/p>\n
Last month, the California Attorney General\u2019s office warned of \u201cdangerous conditions\u201d at the California City facility. In a\u00a0Dec. 19 letter<\/a> to Noem, attorney Michael Newman wrote the California Department of Justice \u201chas grave concerns about the conditions at the facility and the lack of adequate medical care,\u201d after inspecting the facility. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Attorney General Rob Bonta said the facility had \u201copened prematurely and was not prepared to handle the needs of the incoming population.\u201d<\/p>\n Ryan Gustin, a spokesperson for CoreCivic, previously told Calmatters that the site has robust medical and mental health care on site, including around-the-clock access to those services. He said those services adhere to \u201cstandards set forth by our government partners.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere are no delays in individuals getting their prescription medications,\u201d Gustin said.<\/p>\n
\nDemocrats want to visit ICE centers <\/p>\n
\nCalifornia\u2019s oversight <\/p>\n