A man held at California’s newest and largest immigration detention center could face “imminent death,” attorneys argued in an emergency motion filed late Tuesday, asking a federal judge to order ICE to immediately provide lifesaving medical care to him and another detainee.
In a motion for a temporary restraining order, attorneys said that Yuri Alexander Roque Campos and Fernando Viera Reyes — plaintiffs in a federal class action lawsuit alleging “inhumane” and “punitive” conditions at California City Detention Facility in the Mojave Desert — are experiencing “acute medical distress and need immediate specialized medical attention.”
“Their risk of severe illness—and in Mr. Roque Campos’s case, imminent death—is real and rising by the day,” the motion states.
At a hearing Wednesday morning, U.S. District Judge Maxine M. Chesney gave the government until 4 p.m. on Monday to resolve the issue or file an opposition, according to Tess Borden, a lawyer with the Prison Law Office, which brought the class action lawsuit, along with the American Civil Liberties Union, the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice and Keker, Van Nest & Peters LLP. The judge set a hearing, if needed, for next Tuesday in San Francisco.
The class action lawsuit, filed last month in the Northern District of California against the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, alleges “decrepit” conditions inside the detention facility.
The Department of Homeland Security and ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the emergency motion or about the treatment that’s been provided to Roque Campos and Viera Reyes.
Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin previously told The Times that “no one is denied access to proper medical care.”
Roque Campos and Viera Reyes are among seven plaintiffs who sued the Trump administration over conditions at the detention facility. They alleged inhumane conditions, including inadequate food, water and medical care.
Ryan Gustin, a spokesman for CoreCivic, which operates the facility, previously told The Times that “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.”
Attorneys argued in the emergency motion that many class members detained at the detention facility need urgent medical care “that medical staff at the facility are unable or unwilling to provide.”
Based on a review of medical records and sworn declarations, a plaintiffs’ expert, Dr. Todd Wilcox, concluded that Roque Campos, 30, has a serious heart condition and is at “significant risk for sudden cardiac death,” according to his declaration in support of the emergency motion.
“I am very scared about what will happen to me if I cannot get the medical care that I need while I am locked up at California City,” Roque Campos said in a statement. “I am afraid that I might die here…”
Wilcox, identified in the motion as the medical director of a large county jail with 31 years of experience in correctional medicine, concluded that Viera Reyes, 50, has “a high probability of having prostate cancer.” Wilcox said Viera Reyes arrived at the facility on August 29 with “medical indications that he needed urgent specialty care for his condition.”
“If Mr. Viera Reyes does have cancer, he needs aggressive treatment quickly to minimize his risk of widespread disease and a much higher mortality rate,” Wilcox stated.
Attorneys argued that Roque Campos and Viera Reyes couldn’t wait for briefing to be complete on a preliminary injunction motion, which they filed Dec. 1, leading them to seek emergency relief. A hearing on the preliminary injunction is set for Jan. 30.
According to the emergency motion, the men’s medical conditions “have only deteriorated since Plaintiffs filed their preliminary injunction motion, and neither man has seen a specialist or begun an appropriate course of treatment.”
Cody Harris, a partner at Keker, Van Nest & Peters, said attorneys flagged the men’s pressing medical issues when the class action lawsuit was filed last month and have continued to do so in recent weeks.
“These are two very acute issues that we felt we had to run to court to address,” Harris said. “But there are others who are suffering from medical problems in that facility.”
The facility, Harris said, “needs a system that can deal with this, so when they get detained people there who have serious medical issues that they can get the care that they need to get. And that care does not seem to exist.”
The former prison opened in August as the Trump administration pushed to expand detention capacity nationwide, despite failing to pass a July fire inspection.
At the time, the city manager warned CoreCivic “that the building is unsafe and violates the fire code because its construction prevents radio signals from transmitting from key areas,” the lawsuit points out.
By the next month, immigrants inside the 2,500-capacity facility launched a hunger strike protesting conditions. At the time the lawsuit was filed, more than 800 people were detained in the facility, lawyers said.
“Their focus is on packing people in and they’re packing people in without an adequate system in place for providing necessary medical care and that is extremely dangerous,” Harris said.
Times staff writer Rachel Uranga contributed to this report.
