Adelanto ICE Processing Center started the year with three detainees. Now, there are 1200

Yahoo

18-06-2025

At the beginning of 2025, there were only three detainees in the Adelanto ICE Processing Center.
On Tuesday, June 17, there were 1,200 detaintees following the recent Los Angeles ICE raids.
The private company that owns the Adelanto center, The GEO Group, announced in a June 10 press release, only days after the Los Angeles raids, that the U.S. District Court approved a settlement in the COVID-19 case of Roman v. Wolf, which ordered a pause on inmate intake due to the outbreak.
The new ruling allows for immediate full intake at the 1,940-bed Adelanto ICE Processing Center.
The Adelanto center wasted no time transferring inmates following the settlement and went from a nearly empty facility to an almost full one. At full occupancy, the Adelanto Center contract would generate approximately $31 million in additional annualized revenues for GEO, the group said in the press release, emphasizing the "importance" of the facility.
California Representatives Judy Chu, Linda Sánchez, Mark Takano, Sydney Kamlager-Dove and Luz Rivas discovered additional information about the usually quiet Adelanto ICE Processing Center on their second visit to the facility this month.
They were initially turned away from the ICE center on June 8, amid the controversial immigration sweeps throughout Southern California, which catalyzed national unrest and anti-ICE protests throughout the state.
The conditions the California representatives say they found on June 17 echo the findings of a 2018 report, which revealed that the conditions inside the Adelanto facility were a "violation of federal standards."
Congressmember Linda Sánchez said the conditions at the Adelanto compound were so horrible a few years ago that the federal courts "essentially said to shut it down."
Not much has improved, Chu stated in a press conference outside of the Adelanto facility. She and her colleagues spoke to some of the detainees in their eight-person cells, many of whom were picked up in the Los Angeles raids.
The people Chu spoke to revealed in a plea for help that they had not been given a change of clothes, underwear or towels in the 10 days they had been at the Adelanto compound.
According to one of the detainees Sánchez spoke to, they were taken into custody in the morning and were not fed until 9 p.m. that night at the Adelanto facility.
Additionally, inmates have yet to be given PINs for outgoing calls and have had no connection to the outside world, including lawyers, for more than a week.
Congressman Mark Takano interviewed an asylee held at the Adelanto facility on Tuesday – someone here legally under U.S. asylum laws – who was picked up by ICE during his third appearance in immigration court in Santa Ana, "following his legal duty."
He had no criminal record, Takano stated, yet his case was dismissed immediately, and he and his wife were arrested by ICE outside the courthouse.
"This is a source of social unrest," Takano said in front of a crowd of protestors outside the ICE center pumping signs with slogans "GEO Kills" and "Shut down Adelanto" into the camera. He also spoke to detainees who were DACA recipients and inmates who had lived in California their entire lives but were nevertheless corralled into the back of an ICE van.
ICE and GEO entered into a 15-year contract on Dec. 19, 2019. The current contract period is effective through Dec. 19, 2029.
'We believe the Adelanto Center plays an important role in helping ICE and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security fulfill their mission and operational priorities," stated George C. Zoley, GEO Group executive chairman
He claims the ICE facility employs roughly 350 San Bernardino County employees who have allowed GEO to provide "high-quality support services" on behalf of ICE in the state of California.
In Tuesday's press conference, however, Chu addressed the "inhumane conditions" employed by The GEO Group, which makes "a billion dollars" from the industry. She believes that GEO is the most profitable out of any private prison company in the United States.
As per the first quarter 2025 financial highlights that The GEO Group has released, the company's revenues total $604.6 million thus far.
Chu said there is no reason why such conditions await immigrants in the Adelanto center when it is owned by a billion-dollar company.
"GEO has to clearly improve its treatment of these detainees," she said.
A protest organized by the Victor Valley community dubbed "Defending Our Neighbors" will be held from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday, June 22, at the Adelanto ICE Processing Facility. Visit www.mobilize.us for more information.
McKenna is a reporter for the Daily Press. She can be reached at [e-mail].
This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: Adelanto ICE Processing Center now at 1200 detainees