SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Citing reports of retaliation against detainees participating in a hunger strike and longstanding concerns about conditions inside California immigration detention centers, state Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez is calling on state officials and private detention operators to end what she described as “inhumane” treatment at the Adelanto Immigration and Customs Enforcement Processing Center.
Pérez, who represents California’s 25th Senate District, wrote to California Attorney General Rob Bonta and to The GEO Group Inc., which operates the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, demanding that retaliation against protesting detainees cease and that all “inhumane treatment” be corrected, according to her letters.
“Detained immigrants are bravely engaging in a hunger strike to protest the horrific conditions they are facing,” Pérez wrote to Bonta. “Instead of being met with compassion, these individuals report facing severe retaliation including solitary confinement, lockdowns, threats of transfer, and the denial of basic necessities such as water and electricity.”
Pérez’s letters come after members of Congress visited Adelanto on June 1, the same day detainees began a hunger strike. The hunger strike was launched in response to what detainees described as “poor” and “inhumane” conditions at the processing center.
Those reports are consistent with findings by the California Department of Justice, which released a review of conditions and confinement at California immigration detention centers in May 2026.
Detainees reported that they did not “consistently receive adequate clothing and blankets,” that staff “failed to consistently conduct the medical, dental, and mental health screening required at detainee intake,” and that staff did not follow up with detainees who had received screenings, according to the Department of Justice’s May 2026 report.
Detainees also reported that “the facilities were serving improperly cooked food at inconvenient and inconsistent times, occasionally conflicting with detainees’ scheduled recreation times.” The report further stated that during a surge in detainee intake, water quality was described as “poor” and “insufficient.”
The CA Department of Justice attributed many of the conditions to “the result of a large influx of immigrants being housed there,” according to the report. The department noted that Adelanto went from housing seven detainees in 2023 to 1,570 detainees by the beginning of July 2025.
“The Trump Administration’s mass deportation campaign has led to a shocking increase in detainee populations — and facilities have been alarmingly unprepared to meet this new demand,” Bonta said on the Department of Justice website. “During their inspections, my team found evidence of inadequate medical care and heard countless reports of disturbing, unsafe, and unsanitary conditions and a lack of basic necessities.”
The May 2026 report also stated that four detainees died between September 2025 and March 2026. According to the Department of Justice, the families of those detainees alleged the deaths were linked to “medical care deficiencies.”
Pérez also wrote to George Zoley, chairman and CEO of The GEO Group, demanding that retaliation by guards against detainees cease and that the company correct the “inhumane treatment taking place at Adelanto and across the broader system of immigration detention facilities it operates,” according to her letter.
“This week, reports surfaced that detainees who spoke out about abusive conditions faced brutal retaliation from workers inside the GEO Group-operated facility,” Pérez wrote in her letter to Zoley and The GEO Group. “Reporting by journalists at LA Taco details how detainees were confronted and violently removed by agents wearing riot gear in apparent retaliation for signing a document requesting legal intervention to address the inhumane conditions.”
Pérez also requested that The GEO Group permit inspections of its detention facilities by state and local authorities, as well as elected representatives, “to allow meaningful monitoring of conditions inside,” according to her letter.
ICE reportedly opened its eighth detention facility in California in April. At that time, approximately 5,337 detainees were being held across the state’s detention facilities, according to DetentionReports.com.
“Every one of us has a moral obligation to speak up and demand that safe and humane treatment be afforded to every person held in detention,” Pérez said in a June 9 news release from her office.
Follow the Vanguard on Social Media – X, Instagram and Facebook. Subscribe the Vanguard News letters. To make a tax-deductible donation, please visit davisvanguard.org/donate or give directly through ActBlue. Your support will ensure that the vital work of the Vanguard continues.
