{"id":11683,"date":"2026-06-02T20:01:47","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T20:01:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=11683"},"modified":"2026-06-02T20:01:47","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T20:01:47","slug":"3-congress-members-decry-conditions-inside-adelanto-ice-facility-while-feds-say-they-are-misguided","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=11683","title":{"rendered":"3 Congress members decry conditions inside Adelanto ICE facility \u2014 while feds say they are misguided"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>

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\u201cI have been visiting Adelanto since 2014, and the conditions have always been bad but I\u2019m struck by the fact that they\u2019ve never gotten (in) any way better,\u201d said Judy Chu, D-Pasadena, during a Monday, June 1, press conference across the street from the detention facility. \u201cIf anything, they\u2019ve gotten worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

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: \u201cThe food is not [fit] to serve to [an] animal. \u2026 uncooked chicken, brown salad, old eggs, uncooked rice. \u2026 We will go weeks without medical care.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several men were threatened with being sent to solitary confinement for participating in the hunger strike, they said.<\/p>\n

In all, 1,700 men are detained at Adelanto, people federal officials say are in the country illegally.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe conditions, they told us, are absolutely miserable,\u201d said Chu said. \u201cThe 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think the worst thing is the lack of medical care,\u201d she said. \u201cWe saw one person who showed us this big cyst in the back of his head. \u2026 It looked horrendous, and it\u2019s been growing over these past seven months. They are doing nothing about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The GEO Group, a private company that owns and operates the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, rejected the allegations.<\/p>

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\u201cGEO 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\u2019s facility contractors,\u201d The GEO Group said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are proud of the role our company has played for\u202f40 years to support the law-enforcement mission of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,\u201d it said. \u201cOver the last four decades, our innovative support-service solutions have helped the federal government implement the policies of seven different presidential administrations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security weighed in as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cSUCH REPORTS ARE FALSE!\u201d the agency said in a statement to the Southern California News Group. \u201cThere 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.<\/p>

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\u201cFor the record: Even during hunger strikes, all detainees receive three meals a day, delivered to the detained alien\u2019s room, along with an adequate supply of drinking water or other beverages,\u201d the statement said. \u201cCertified dieticians evaluate meals.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll aliens in custody receive clean water, clothing, bedding, showers, soap, and toiletries,\u201d the DHS said. \u201cIllegal 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-San Bernardino, said that the unlivable conditions inside the Adelanto ICE Processing Center are intentional.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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,\u201d he said. \u201cPutting humans in unsanitary and overcrowded facilities while they await their lawful legal proceedings is nothing short of cruel.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we know for this (president\u2019s) administration the cruelty is the point,\u201d the congressman said. \u201cThat\u2019s exactly what they want.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd [those five deaths are] far too many,\u201d said Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Los Angeles. \u201cNo one should be dying when they\u2019re being detained by any agency.\u201d<\/p>\n