Recent court filings paint two contradictory pictures about what is happening behind closed doors at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, the privately run immigration detention center 90 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
On the one hand, federal officials argue conditions at Adelanto already meet the standards set by U.S. District Court Judge Sunshine Suzanne Sykes<\/a>. Sykes ordered the government to make immediate improvements at the detention facility on July 16.<\/p>\n And, in any case, they\u2019ve asked the judge to hold off on enforcing her order while they appeal.<\/p>\n Lawyers representing the plaintiffs \u2014 people detained at the facility \u2014 instead describe routine violations of the court order still taking place today. They argue delaying enforcement will prolong violations of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees due process and fair treatment before the law.<\/p>\n How we got here<\/p>\n The case was filed in January by lawyers representing people detained at Adelanto after two people died at the facility \u2014 two more people have died since then.<\/p>\n Here are some key allegations in the lawsuit:<\/p>\n Problems with access to medical care and disability accommodationsContaminated waterWater unavailable 24\/7Food that doesn’t meet dietary requirements<\/p>\n Sykes found enough evidence to support these claims to require immediate action. That\u2019s where the preliminary injunction comes in.<\/p>\n And that did two things: It ordered some changes to be made right away, like 24-hour access to clean water and healthy food. Then it asked the government to prepare a plan for long term improvements. That\u2019s the plan filed by federal officials late Thursday, July 30, which was short on details and also claimed many of the alleged complaints were invalid.<\/a><\/p>\n A July 31 filing by plaintiffs\u2019 attorneys fundamentally disagreed, saying \u201cconditions at Adelanto are not a matter of dispute; they are documented by extensive expert testimony, declarations from detained individuals, and the Government\u2019s own admissions.\u201d<\/p>\n The filing calls the government\u2019s<\/a> request for a stay a delaying tactic, one that would keep in place \u201cconditions this Court found likely unconstitutional, and in which four people have died.\u201d<\/p>\n Sophia Wrench, an attorney for the plaintiffs with Public Counsel, said the government\u2019s request is full of contradictions.<\/p>\n \u201cThis request to hold off on enforcing this injunction represents a pattern of behavior on the part of the government to continually delay implementing court orders,\u201d Wrench said. \u201cThey are simultaneously arguing that they\u2019re already doing everything that the court order is asking them to do, but also saying that it would irreparably injure them to continue to implement the order. So meanwhile, the 1,800 plus people at Adelanto still don\u2019t have clean water consistently, still don\u2019t have clean facilities, and still experience mold that has not been remediated.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked for comment about the plaintiff\u2019s most recent filing, The GEO Group Inc., the private company contracted to run Adelanto under a $400 million annual contract through 2029, referred LAist to ICE.<\/p>\n The Department of Homeland Security has not yet responded to a request to comment for this story, but in a previous, unsigned statement, the agency said reports of substandard conditions at Adelanto are false.<\/p>\n Alleged worms in the water<\/p>\n One central area of dispute is over water, both access and quality.<\/p>\n Federal officials say both are adequate. In a declaration filed to the court on July 30, Ryan Smith, an ICE assistant field office director, said conditions outlined in the July 16 court injunction are being met.<\/p>\n Smith\u2019s declaration said the facility already provides clean drinking water 24 hours a day, with access to drinking fountains supplied by the same municipal water company that supplies the town of Adelanto.<\/p>\n Shortly after Smith\u2019s declaration was filed, L.A. Taco reported a man held at Adelanto<\/a>, Carlitos Ricardo Parias, said he discovered black worms in the drinking water there. An attorney representing Parias said Parias got the water from coolers provided by the facility, and shared the video showing the worms with LAist.<\/p>\n Other people detained at Adelanto complained about the water in new court filings. A declaration filed by Wrench, of Public Counsel, includes reports from four men held inside the facility who all report \u201csignificant delays\u201d accessing clean drinking water since the court order.<\/p>\n Water is available from a sink inside the cells and in Igloo jugs, according to the declaration, which also notes those detained said it\u2019s only been since the lawsuit was filed in January that GEO guards instructed them to drink from the sink.<\/p>\n The declaration says that even the water in the jugs \u201cappears to be stale and dirty, with visible black sediment in the water.\u201d<\/p>\n Guards occasionally take the water dispensers away, one plaintiff reported, leading the men in his unit to chant \u201cAgua! Agua! Agua!\u201d<\/p>\n One plaintiff said the men in his unit do not have clean drinking water for four hours at a time nearly every day. He said on July 22, nearly a week after the order, around 25 people in the unit filed a collective grievance and were told by a guard that they could drink water from the sink instead.<\/p>\n While it\u2019s true that the Adelanto Water Department provides water to the facility, Wrench said that doesn\u2019t explain away issues with water cleanliness.<\/p>\n \u201cThe city of Adelanto serves water to the entire city of Adelanto. So they are responsible to that point, but once the water is in the detention center, Adelanto is responsible for the storage of the water, the quality of the pipes, the overlay with the sewer system,\u201d Wrench said. \u201cWe\u2019re getting things like people saying the water smells, alternatively, like bleach or smells like water, we\u2019re seeing that the water is dark colored. That\u2019s what we\u2019re hearing from folks inside. That doesn\u2019t align with what GEO Group and ICE are telling us.\u201d<\/p>\n How to reach me<\/p>\n