A report by Disability Rights California and officials say detainees with disabilities inside the U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Adelanto detention center are subjected to abuse and neglect.
The advocacy group “has grave concerns that the recent surge of individuals being held in Adelanto will only place individuals with disabilities at even greater risk of abuse, neglect, and serious harm,” the report says.
On Thursday, Aug. 14, at a downtown Los Angeles press conference, the group and others pushed for change.
“The conditions at Adelanto make it clear that the current system of immigration detention is dangerous and inadequate for all people, but especially those with disabilities,” said Richard Diaz, an attorney with Disability Rights California, a nonprofit advocacy group.
“(Adelanto detainees) are deprived of the food that they need in order to survive,” U.S. Congresswoman Judy Chu, D-Pasadena, said at the press conference. “These are conditions where they are treated indeed like dogs in a cage.”
During a June visit, a Disability Rights representative spoke to a detained man who, according to the organization, said he received diabetes medication only twice over the course of 10 days, putting him at risk of diabetic shock; he was supposed to get it twice a day.
The report also cited detained individuals having limited access to phones and other devices to connect with family and other loved ones.
ICE contracts with the GEO Group, a private prison company, to hold immigration detainees in facilities such as Adelanto across the country.
“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,” GEO said in a statement. “In all instances, our support services are monitored by ICE, including by on-site agency personnel, and other organizations within the Department of Homeland Security to ensure strict compliance with ICE detention standards that set strict requirements on the treatment and services ICE detainees receive.
“In the event issues are identified, we quickly resolve all of ICE’s concerns as required by the ICE’s Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan,” the statement said.
ICE did not return a message seeking comment.
In 2020, the number of detainees drastically dwindled after COVID-19 outbreaks plagued Adelanto. Early this year, Adelanto housed just a couple of people, said Diaz, the Disability Rights California lawyer. Within several months, that went up to 300. By June, Diaz said, the population was 1,400. At that time, there were three psychologists based at the detention center, the group said. It is unclear if that number has changed.
“(Disability Rights) finds that ICE and GEO Group are failing to provide for individuals’ basic needs, including sufficient access to healthy food, water, and clean clothing,” the report says.
The congresswoman said Raul Ernesto Morales-Ramos, 44, did not receive medical care for a tumor he had while detained inside Adelanto in 2015.
“He begged Adelanto officials for help, but he was denied time and time again,” she said. “Finally, he was seen by a doctor who was shocked by what she found.”
Morales-Ramos, she said, died days after he was finally sent to a hospital.
“Well, now we are here a decade later,” Chu said. “And Disability Rights California found that Adelanto officials have refused to learn from Ralph’s tragic death.”
In June, representative Chu was denied access into the Adelanto ICE detention center. She was later granted access, and the congresswoman planned to visit again on Friday, Aug. 15.