![\"Rafael](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788863890_186_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nRafael Vela Gonzalez was a few steps away from the front door of his Silver Lake home when two Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents grabbed him in early January.<\/p>\n
The 66-year-old, originally from El Salvador, had been in the U.S. since he was a teenager. His boyish grin was a fixture in his tight-knit neighborhood for more than three decades.<\/p>\n
Neighbors always waved at Vela Gonzalez as he walked his German shepherd, Chico. He retired as a handyman a few years ago but passed the time caring for his aging partner, Vivian Lee Arguello, and doing odd jobs around the neighborhood to make ends meet. <\/p>\n
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Rafael Vela Gonzalez\u2019s dog, Chico, had to be rehoused.<\/p>\n
(Ashley Cabrera)<\/p>\n
He built the baby crib that welcomed a couple\u2019s first child. He painted bedrooms, took charge of the block\u2019s recycling efforts and fixed countless plumbing problems. <\/p>\n
Now, after nearly eight months in ICE detention, Vela Gonzalez can barely stand, his loved ones say. <\/p>\n
A mysterious rash has spread across his legs, and blood oozes from the sores. He doesn\u2019t know what caused it, but his feet are so swollen he struggles to walk. He complained of stomach pain for weeks, until he collapsed in his cell in June, said his lawyer, Barbara Darnell, and spent nearly a week in the hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest fear for a lot of the family is that he was just either going to disappear or he was going to get sick in there and die,\u201d said Ashley Cabrera, 23, a loved one whom Vela Gonzalez calls his niece. \u201cHe keeps complaining about these health concerns and the facility doesn\u2019t care.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Adelanto ICE Processing Center has, for years, been accused of substandard living conditions. Detainees have reported worm-like creatures<\/a> in their drinking water, launched hunger strikes<\/a>, and signed onto class-action lawsuits<\/a> in recent months, decrying poor food, sanitation and medical care.<\/a> <\/p>\n Vivian Lee Arguello holds a photo of her partner, Rafael Vela Gonzalez. <\/p>\n (Gary Coronado \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n A federal judge in mid-July sided with detainees<\/a>, who argued their constitutional and disability rights were being violated, and ordered the government overhaul conditions at the center.<\/p>\n A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said all immigrants receive comprehensive medical care when they enter ICE custody, including medical, dental and mental health services as available. <\/p>\n Similar complaints have been filed against detention centers nationwide. Thirty-three people died in ICE custody in 2025, according to agency data<\/a>, triple the deaths from the year prior. Four detainees have died in Adelanto<\/a> since September.<\/p>\n Lee Arguello fears Vela Gonzalez will suffer the same fate.<\/p>\n The 81-year-old and Vela Gonzalez have been together for more than 30 years, since she first hired him to do some carpentry in her home. She relied on him for nearly everything, from maintaining the house to tracking her medicine and cooking meals. <\/p>\n The pair never married because Lee Arguello wasn\u2019t able to divorce her former husband, who took off decades ago, she said. <\/p>\n Lee Arguello, a U.S. citizen born in Los Angeles, now struggles to live without Vela Gonzalez. The housework piled up, the yard is overgrown, her expenses have risen and she can\u2019t keep up with her health now that he is gone. <\/p>\n \u201cHe tells me \u2026 that he\u2019s looking forward to coming home, and I hate to disappoint him and tell him that he might not come home. So I don\u2019t say anything,\u201d Lee Arguello said. \u201cIt\u2019s heartbreaking.\u201d<\/p>\n That day in January, Lee Arguello was on her couch in the living room, just steps away from the front door, when she heard Vela Gonzalez\u2019s piercing scream. <\/p>\n \u201cVivian!\u201d he said, his voice barely audible above the barks of his dog, Chico. <\/p>\n Vivian Lee Arguello relied heavily on Rafael Vela Gonzalez as her full-time caretaker. <\/p>\n (Gary Coronado \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n Lee Arguello\u2019s mobility issues make it difficult to walk without assistance. By the time she made it to the door, Vela Gonzalez was being dragged down the street. The guilt eats at her, she said. <\/p>\n \u201cI couldn\u2019t do anything to help him,\u201d Lee Arguello said. \u201cIt\u2019s so, so difficult not knowing what\u2019s going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n Video of the January incident went viral, and landed on Cabrera\u2019s Instagram feed before Lee Arguello was able to call her. <\/p>\n Cabrera watched in horror as the man she\u2019d called an uncle for nearly two decades was detained.<\/p>\n Vela Gonzalez was dragged down the concrete steps and pushed to the ground by two agents, before a third agent emerged to handcuff him, according to video footage<\/a> reviewed by The Times. Another video angle shows agents holding him by the collar as they walk him down the street.<\/p>\n Vela Gonzalez has few blood relatives in the U.S., but formed a chosen family over his time in the country. <\/p>\n Cabrera and her family met him nearly two decades ago through church and he quickly became friends with Cabrera\u2019s mom. <\/p>\n Since then, Vela Gonzalez has rarely missed a family event, she said. At some point along the way, she started calling him uncle. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re just trying to help Rafael as much as we can, trying to get him to a safe place,\u201d Cabrera said. <\/p>\n Close relatives of Cabrera and Vela Gonzalez initially assumed ICE would clear up the issue. Vela Gonzalez always believed he had legal status, said Darnell, his attorney. <\/p>\n He arrived in the U.S. at age 19, just over two years after he was forced to join the Salvadoran army at the outbreak of the nation\u2019s brutal civil war.<\/a> He received death threats, and his nephews were murdered, his lawyer said. <\/p>\n![\"Vivian](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788863890_133_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Vivian](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788863891_59_.jpeg\")
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