On Thursday, December 18th, International Migrant Day, a coalition of various groups, including Bayan Southern California, the International League of Peoples’ Struggle, Migrant USA, Migrante USA, and The Tanggol Migrante Movement organized a rally outside of Adelanto City Hall to bring awareness to the conditions that detainees are subjected to in the privately-owned GEO detention center, which is operating with concentration camp-like conditions in support of U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE).
The Adelanto Processing Center operates as an ICE prison with a capacity of 1,940 detainees.
According to GEO’s website:
“The Support services GEO provides on behalf of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement include around-the-clock access to medical care, in-person and virtual legal and family visitation, general and legal library access, dietitian-approved meals, religious and specialty diets, recreational amenities, and opportunities to practice their religious beliefs.”
However, the stories being told by members of Migrante USA and Bayan SoCal on Thursday’s rally, after they returned from visiting with some of the detainees, paint an opposite, crueler reality.
Kai Marie, chairperson for Migrante USA, broke into tears as she was introduced to rally-goers, moments after arriving from visiting detainees at the GEO facility a couple of miles away. As she fought to regain her trembling voice and hold back tears, she shared some of the detainees' stories.
Marie shared a story from a detainee who reported uncertainty about when they would be fed. When they were finally served a meal, it might have been one or two pieces of waffles with a bit of syrup. The stress caused by their living conditions has led to fights amongst detainees, like one in the prior week, where guards allegedly tear-gassed the whole dormitory, causing health problems for many detained in proximity.
Detainees are required to clean the dormitories themselves, with little to no supplies, for $1 a day. That includes cleaning up tear gas with just water, which, when mixed with tear gas, creates acidic compounds that make the irritant more corrosive to the skin. Detainees are left to live with tear gas and its effects for weeks.
Another rally goer, who goes by Max, told L.A. TACO that the detainee they visited described how they have been denied medical attention. If they need medicine or an examination, detainees are instructed to leave a note outside their door that often goes untouched and ignored by guards for up to four days, in one example.
Furthermore, detainees told Max that guards often cut their phone calls short and reprimand them for discussing the conditions inside the facility, telling them they can’t make a phone call until next week.
These abuses fall in line with reports from other facilities around the nation describing similar human rights violations. L.A. TACO has reported on two deaths at the Adelanto detention facility this year, those of Ismael Ayala-Uribe, who died of medical neglect, and Gabriel Garcia Aviles, two of at least 30 people who have died in ICE detention centers this year alone.
