Three U.S. Congress members from California decried conditions inside the Adelanto ICE Processing Center following visits, they said, with several detained men participating in an ongoing hunger strike to protest alleged inhumane conditions.
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“I have been visiting Adelanto since 2014, and the conditions have always been bad but I’m struck by the fact that they’ve never gotten (in) any way better,” said Judy Chu, D-Pasadena, during a Monday, June 1, press conference across the street from the detention facility. “If anything, they’ve gotten worse.”
One of the men the group visited shared a petition, obtained by the Southern California News Group, signed by 150 detained people listing 13 grievances, including: “The food is not [fit] to serve to [an] animal. … uncooked chicken, brown salad, old eggs, uncooked rice. … We will go weeks without medical care.”
Several men were threatened with being sent to solitary confinement for participating in the hunger strike, they said.
In all, 1,700 men are detained at Adelanto, people federal officials say are in the country illegally.
“The conditions, they told us, are absolutely miserable,” said Chu said. “The water is in these big jugs but if they run out of water it takes three to four hours for them to bring the water in, and oftentimes the water is brown or has hair in it.
“But I think the worst thing is the lack of medical care,” she said. “We saw one person who showed us this big cyst in the back of his head. … It looked horrendous, and it’s been growing over these past seven months. They are doing nothing about it.”
The GEO Group, a private company that owns and operates the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, rejected the allegations.
“GEO categorically rejects these baseless allegations, which are part of a coordinated, politically motivated campaign by outside groups to dismantle ICE and federal immigration detention by targeting the government’s facility contractors,” The GEO Group said in a statement.
“We are proud of the role our company has played for 40 years to support the law-enforcement mission of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” it said. “Over the last four decades, our innovative support-service solutions have helped the federal government implement the policies of seven different presidential administrations.”
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security weighed in as well.
“SUCH REPORTS ARE FALSE!” the agency said in a statement to the Southern California News Group. “There is no hunger strike at Adelanto, and no one is being abused. Members of Congress should be looking after the needs of their American citizen constituents rather than creating divisive false media narratives.
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“For the record: Even during hunger strikes, all detainees receive three meals a day, delivered to the detained alien’s room, along with an adequate supply of drinking water or other beverages,” the statement said. “Certified dieticians evaluate meals.
“All aliens in custody receive clean water, clothing, bedding, showers, soap, and toiletries,” the DHS said. “Illegal aliens also have access to phones to communicate with their family members and lawyers. In fact, ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens.”
On May 15, over 40 people began a hunger strike inside Adelanto, demanding prompt medical care and protesting what they say are skimpy food portions and mold in the showers, several detained people told the Southern California News Group.
Days later, an additional 20 people joined the hunger strike inside the Desert View Annex, an ICE facility next door, activists said, to call for adequate medical and mental-health care, nutritious food, accountability for deaths in ICE custody, bond reform, the right to organize without retaliation, and to shut down the Adelanto ICE facilities.
Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-San Bernardino, said that the unlivable conditions inside the Adelanto ICE Processing Center are intentional.
“We met with three individuals today who, as Representative Chu said, are part of (leadership) within the hunger strike drawing attention to unsafe, unsanitary and unlivable conditions that they experience,” he said. “Putting humans in unsanitary and overcrowded facilities while they await their lawful legal proceedings is nothing short of cruel.
“But we know for this (president’s) administration the cruelty is the point,” the congressman said. “That’s exactly what they want.”
Behind the congressional members, supporters of various groups held up posters with the names and faces of the five men who they say have died after being detained inside Adelanto since last September.
“And [those five deaths are] far too many,” said Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Los Angeles. “No one should be dying when they’re being detained by any agency.”
Representative Pete Aguilar (D-San Bernardino) speaking at a press conference about the hunger strike inside the Adelanto ICE Processing Center on June 1, 2026. (Ryanne Mena)
Representative Judy Chu (D-Pasadena) speaks at a press conference about the hunger strike inside the Adelanto ICE Processing Center on June 1, 2026. (Ryanne Mena)
Representative Jimmy Gomez (D-Los Angeles) speaking at a press conference about the hunger strike inside the Adelanto ICE Processing Center on June 1, 2026. (Ryanne Mena)
The Adelanto ICE Processing Center has faced widespread scrutiny from watchdog organizations, politicians, and advocacy groups for the alleged abuse and neglect people are reportedly subjected to.
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