Immigrants held in ‘inhumane’ conditions at California detention facility sue ICE, DHS

Fernando Gomez Ruiz had been eating at a lunch truck outside Home Depot when agents arrested him and 10 others in early October.

The diabetic father of two, who has lived in the Los Angeles area for 22 years, was detained and then quickly transferred to California’s biggest detention facility, where he’s been unable to get insulin regularly and now nurses a worsening hole in his foot.

He fears now not only being deported, but losing a foot.

Ruiz is one of seven immigrants detained who filed a federal class action lawsuit in the Northern District of California against the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Wednesday for “inhumane” and “punitive” conditions at California City Detention Facility in the Mojave Desert.

“Conditions in California City are horrific,” said Tess Borden, a lawyer with the Prison Law Office. “The conditions are punishing and they are meant to punish.”

An image used in a class action lawsuit filed by the ACLU of the interior of the California City Detention Facility in the Mojave Desert.

(ACLU)

“Defendants are failing to provide constitutionally adequate care for the people in the facility,” Borden said. “Mr. Gomez Ruiz is just tragically one such example.”

The complaint details alleged “decrepit” conditions inside California’s newest detention facility, where sewage bubbles up shower drains, insects crawl up and down the walls of cold concrete group cells the size of parking lots, calls for medical help go unanswered for weeks and people are excessively punished.

Ryan Gustin, a spokesman for CoreCivic, which operates the facility, referred questions to DHS and ICE, but said in a statement “the safety, health and well-being of the individuals entrusted to our care is our top priority. 

“We take seriously our responsibility to adhere to all applicable federal detention standards in our ICE-contracted facilities, including the [California City facility.] Our immigration facilities are monitored very closely by our government partners at ICE, and they are required to undergo regular review and audit processes to ensure an appropriate standard of living and care for all detainees.”

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But last month when asked about the center, Tricia McLaughlin, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, defended the conditions.

“ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens,” she said. “All detainees are provided with proper meals, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with lawyers and their family members.”

The lawsuit alleges just the opposite: inadequate food and water, frigid conditions, forced isolation and lack of access to lawyers. It also details instances where life-threatening conditions allegedly weren’t attended to.

An image used in a class action lawsuit filed by the ACLU of the interior of the California City Detention Facility in the Mojave Desert.

(ACLU)

One of the plaintiffs, Yuri Alexander Roque Campos, didn’t get his needed heart medications. Since arriving there he has had two emergency hospitalizations for severe chest pain. The last time he was there, the doctor told him “he could die if this were to happen again,” according to the lawsuit.

“It is exemplary of the drama and the heartbreak that people are experiencing inside,” Borden said.

The former prison opened without proper permitting in August as the Trump administration pushed to expand detention capacity nationwide. By the next month, immigrants inside the 2,500 capacity facility launched a hunger strike protesting conditions.

The lawsuit was brought by the Prison Law Office, the American Civil Liberties Union, the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice and Keker, Van Nest & Peters.