LOS ANGELES — State Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez is urging the California Senate to pass SB 995, the Masuma Khan Justice Act, citing firsthand accounts of inhumane conditions inside privately operated immigration detention facilities and calling for stronger state oversight.
In a press release Friday, Pérez said the legislation is intended to increase accountability for detention operators after hearing directly from people held inside the facilities about unsafe and degrading conditions.
According to Sen. Pérez, “SB 995 would strengthen state oversight of private detention facilities.” This includes “fines of up to $25,000 per violation per day and suspend or revoke state-issued permits to operate if facilities fail to meet health, safety, and labor standards.”
The press release notes that SB 995 is sponsored by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), the Coalition for Humane Immigration Rights, Los Angeles (CHIRLA), Public Counsel and the South Asian Network (SAN). Also joining in support are the California Community Foundation and Asian Americans Advancing Justice–Southern California (AJSOCAL).
The press release states that community advocates with the Otay Mesa Detention Collective in San Diego have also “exposed the inhumane conditions” after finding “notes attached to small hygiene bottles…from detainees requesting help and expressing concern over poor conditions inside the detention center.”
The push for the legislation also stems from the firsthand experience of Masuma Khan, who was held in a detention center in Kern County.
She was “detained by federal agents during one of her regular immigration check-in appointments” and was held “without warm clothes, appropriate food, or access to vital medicine,” despite having no criminal record, according to the Office of Sasha Renée Pérez.
Masuma Khan shared her experience at CoreCivic’s California City facility, where she said she experienced “fear and lasting trauma.”
She was unable to communicate with her family and attorneys, where she stated: “The lack of transparency and accountability at these facilities can only be prevented when third parties…get fully involved.”
She also expressed gratitude toward Sen. Pérez for her “advocacy and compassion for her constituents.”
The press release states that Khan’s story highlights a “deeper and alarming trend” after an “unprecedented number of people died in detention last year.”
However, this year could be worse, “with eight deaths already reported in January alone.”
Sen. Pérez said these conditions persist because private detention centers “are making millions in profits” and that many of the practices “are happening largely in secret.”
Many of the deficiencies found in private detention facilities reviewed by the California attorney general include “inadequate medical and mental health care, inadequate suicide and prevention protocols, a lack of transparency regarding use-of-force practices, and impacts to due process rights including the ability to access legal counsel,” according to the press release.
Angelica Salas, executive director of CHIRLA, referred to the conditions, stating that “too many loved ones have disappeared into a detention system where abusive and illegal conditions are allowed to persist—and accountability has vanished.”
She added that “detention must never mean the loss of basic human rights, compassion, and dignity.”
According to South Asian Network Executive Director Shakeel Syed, “SB 995 aspires to humanize the inhumane conditions in the ICE detention centers.”
The Office of Sasha Renée Pérez also noted that while counties are permitted to inspect these facilities, only “three of the four California counties…have not conducted inspections,” and “issues have persisted despite federal inspections.”
With the number of detention beds in California “poised to increase as some operators move to expand detention space at two facilities in Kern County,” the “ability to provide adequate health care and other essential services” could be affected, according to the press release.
U.S. Rep. Judy Chu joined Sen. Pérez and a coalition of advocates in defending “immigrant neighbors and demand accountability and transparency from Trump and the privately run detention centers.”
In response to Trump’s attempts to “prevent oversight of these facilities,” supporters say legislation such as SB 995 “will ensure facilities are inspected and accountable to the law.”
Assemblymember and co-author of SB 995 Mark González also expressed support for the bill, saying it “is a critical step” in ensuring that private detention facilities “follow California’s health, safety, and labor standards.”
Rather than “treating immigrant communities as disposable,” González said the state must stand on the side of “dignity, accountability, and basic human decency.”
MALDEF Vice President of Policy Advocacy and Community Education Hector O. Villagra said, “California has every right—and every responsibility—to enforce basic health and safety standards in the buildings that operate within our borders.”
He added that because the bill “regulates fire safety, sanitation, ventilation, and worker protections” and does not “regulate enforcement or detention operations,” the legislation is “fully constitutional and firmly within the state’s authority.”
Public Counsel President and CEO Kathryn Eidmann said the organization “fights every day” for people held in the facilities “who are suffering and have no other recourse.”
Cielo Castro, chief impact officer of the California Community Foundation, also called for “immigrant justice and the protection of civil rights for all.”
Eidmann added that “accountability should be the rule, not the exception.”
According to Sen. Pérez, “SB 995 ensures operators of detention facilities follow California’s health, safety and labor standards and allows us to hold facilities accountable when they don’t.”
By passing the legislation, she said the state will “shine a light on these conditions by strengthening the state’s ability to conduct inspections, impose fines and shut down the worst offenders.”
According to the press release, “SB 995 will be considered in a Senate policy committee hearing this spring.”
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