ACLU lawsuit alleges appalling conditions at California’s largest immigration detention facility

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal lawsuit filed Wednesday alleges appalling conditions at California’s largest immigration detention facility, a formerly mothballed prison in the desert where sewage bubbles up from shower drains and detainees are forced to use dirty bandages to wrap open sores.

The American Civil Liberties Union and others are representing seven men at a detention facility in California City, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of Los Angeles. The complaint was filed in District Court for Northern California.

“ICE is playing with people’s lives, and they treat people like they’re trash, like they’re nothing,” said one of the plaintiffs, Sokhean Keo, in a press release issued Thursday. “Some of the people I’m detained with don’t even have soap — they take showers without soap — and they’re losing weight because they don’t have enough to eat.”

Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, denied the allegations and said that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement “has higher detention standards” than most prisons.

“All detainees are provided with 3 meals a day, clean water, clothing, bedding, showers, and toiletries, and have access to phones to communicate with their family members and lawyers. Certified dieticians evaluate meals,” she said in a statement, adding that it is taxpayer-funded.

President Donald Trump’s administration has aggressively sought to remove people living in the country illegally.

The prison was shut down in 2023. But ICE contracted to reopen the facility as a migrant detention center with a bed capacity of 2,560. Detainees were sent there starting in late August, and today it holds about 800 people.

The complaint alleges woefully inadequate medical care, severe understaffing and crumbling infrastructure. When it first reopened, men were told to clean out dirty cells and housing units full of trash and “toilets with fecal matter still in them,” but they were not given cleaning supplies.

It also alleges that the civil detention center is worse than a prison for criminals. Detainees are locked in their cells for much of the day and without programs to keep them occupied, “resulting in a widespread sense of hopelessness, desperation and, in some cases, self-harm and suicidal ideation,” the suit says.

Fernando Gomez Ruiz, a diabetic, was eating at a food truck outside a Home Depot when he was swept up by ICE in early October. He has been denied regular doses of insulin, “leading to elevated blood sugar levels and a large, oozing ulcer on the bottom of his foot” that he covers with soiled bandages because clean wraps are unavailable, according to the complaint.

He fears he will lose his foot.

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This story has been updated to correct that the lawsuit was filed Wednesday, not Thursday.