“Mire, ahorita una persona de aquí tiene una cucaracha en una bolsa. Orale, ¿de donde la agarró?” says Carlitos Ricardo Parias during a call with L.A. TACO from inside the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, around 2 p.m. this afternoon.
(“ Look, just now a person here has a cockroach in a bag. Where did you get it from?’)
“De mi cuarto,” answers Juan Carlos Mastache-Guzman, another detainee.
(‘“From my room.”)
After finding it, the detainee trapped the critter in a plastic cup and kept it alive with a small piece of bread.
Mastache-Guzman said he’s been inside of the detention facility for around seven months. Around a month into his detention, he saw cockroaches for the first time. Since then, he said he’s noticed them appear around every two to three weeks.
“Cucarachas hay bastante…preferí agarrarlas para que se reportara todo esto y abogar para nosotros que hicieran algo,” Mastache-Guzman told L.A. TACO.
("There are a lot of cockroaches…I preferred to capture it, so that all of this could be reported, so people could plead for us and do something.")
Last week, L.A. TACO first reported on what appeared to be worms found inside of the drinking water provided to detainees in the Adelanto ICE Processing center. Another detainee had trapped the contamination inside a soda bottle and shared it in a video call that with L.A. TACO.
A week later, Ryanne Mena of L.A. Daily News confirmed the contaminants were fly larvae.
The allegations come just weeks after a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction to detainees who sued the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement due to alleged inhumane conditions inside the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, according to reporting by L.A. TACO.
The judge ordered detainees be immediately provided with adequate sanitation throughout Adelanto ICE Processing Center East and West wing. The judge ordered that, at minimum, the defendants must clean the facility daily, ensure soap and hygiene products are free and consistently available, and that mold be identified, treated, and remediated. The order also required the facility to provide nutritious and sanitary meals, and ensure detainees have 24-hour access to clean potable drinking water.
L.A. TACO reached out for comment from GEO Group, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Department of Homeland Security for comment on this story. We will update this story if we hear back.
This story has been updated to include comment response from a DHS spokesperson. In a comment to L.A. TACO, DHS denied a pest outbreak at the facility.
"The facility has not received any complaints or grievances from detainees at the facility for insect problems inside their dorms. Orkin Pest control provides service at the facility twice a month," said a DHS spokesperson.
