Immigrants protest solitary confinement, abuse at CA’s largest ICE detention center
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Over 100 detainees at Cal City ICE facility protested poor conditions via sit-ins.
- Detainees reported medical neglect, unsanitary conditions, and legal access issues.
- Facility opened without city permits; officials now review legal and code violations.
Detainees inside California’s largest immigration detention center are being placed in solitary confinement, experiencing delays in medical care, and facing retaliation from officers for protesting “inhumane” conditions, two detainees told The Fresno Bee.
The detainees are among the 500 or so who’ve been transferred to the newly opened California City Immigration Processing Center, a 2,560-bed U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement detention facility about 70 miles east of Bakersfield.
“The living conditions are inhumane. We have all kinds of health hazards. It’s dirty, they don’t clean up or have any chemicals to clean. It’s unsanitary,” Sokhean Keo, a detainee who was transferred to the facility this month, told a Bee reporter in a phone interview.
Conditions at the 70-acre facility in the Kern County desert have been scrutinized by immigrant rights advocates since Tennessee-based private prison operator CoreCivic began housing undocumented immigrants there in late August.
Kern County-based immigrant rights advocates raised alarm regarding a detainee who was hospitalized this month after he attempted to take his own life. Detainees accuse facility staff of withholding medication.
Last Thursday, more than 100 detained individuals staged sit-ins and refused meals across several housing pods at the sprawling facility in protest over what they describe as widespread poor living conditions, according to the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice, a Bay Area-based legal aid nonprofit for undocumented immigrants.
One detainee told The Bee that immigrants have been placed on 17-hour lockdowns and pepper-sprayed for participating in the sit-ins.
Attorneys for the nonprofit spoke with California City detainees who alleged officers in riot gear threatened use of force against detainees who participated in a sit-in and placed at least one housing unit on a multi-day lockdown without access to telephones. Immigrants at the facility told the nonprofit that four detainees were handcuffed and placed in solitary confinement, and one person was denied toilet paper by a CoreCivic officer for participating in a hunger strike.
In an email to The Bee, CoreCivic denied the accusations of unsanitary conditions and mistreatment of detainees. The operator said all detainees receive clothing, bedding and toiletries at no cost and have access to medical care and legal resources.
“No detainee has faced prolonged lockdowns of 17 hours or more or have been pepper sprayed for acts of disobedience,” said Brian Todd, a CoreCivic spokesperson.
“CoreCivic takes seriously our obligation to adhere to all applicable federal standards in all our federally contracted facilities, including our California City Correctional Facility (CCCF). All our facilities operate with a significant amount of oversight and accountability, including being monitored by federal officials on a daily basis, to ensure an appropriate standard of living and care for every individual.”
After publication of this article, CoreCivic said in a statement that “solitary confinement, whether as a term or in practice, does not exist at our California City Correctional Facility or any facility that CoreCivic operates.”
Detainee says he was threatened with solitary confinement
One of the detainees who spoke with The Bee said he was threatened with solitary confinement the day he was transferred to the California City detention center.
Sokhean Keo was transferred from the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center in Bakersfield to the California City facility in early September and has been in ICE detention since January 2023. Keo, an immigrant from Cambodia, said he served time in prison for a “mistake” he made when he was 20 years old and had earned his release in 2023 before ICE agents detained him.
On his first day inside the California City facility, Keo said correctional officers forced him and others to take off their shirts and took pictures of their tattoos. Officers threatened to take Keo to “the hole,” or solitary confinement, unless he admitted to being affiliated with gangs, which he said he is not. Personnel withheld his medication for several days, he said.
“I don’t understand why we’re being threatened for not answering them,” Keo said. “I feel like giving up. There’s no hope for me anymore. Every day I wake up, I’m just sad. It’s horrible.”
The use of solitary confinement in immigration detention has grown exponentially under the second Trump administration, according to a report published Wednesday by the nonprofit group Physicians for Human Rights.
The sit-ins and meal refusals at California City mirror a broader wave of protests across immigration facilities in California, where an estimated 3,727 undocumented people are under ICE detention, according to a recent analysis of ICE data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. This data does not reflect the current detainee population at California City.
From Adelanto to Mesa Verde and the Golden State Annex, the hunger strikes have been part of a pattern of detainee protests over accusations of inadequate food, facilities and medical care in recent years.
A detainee who identified herself as Loba was detained in January 2024 and held at the Golden State Annex, an ICE facility in McFarland, before her transfer to California City in late August.
Loba said detainees in her dorm have been placed on lockdowns for more than 17 hours, in which they weren’t allowed to leave their sleeping quarters, pepper sprayed and prohibited from participating in Thursday’s sit-ins.
Loba also described severe issues inside the facility, including leaking pipes that flooded cells, food that was water-soaked, and poor food handling and sanitation practices, such as staff not using gloves or hair nets and failing to accommodate people with food allergies.
“It’s already been more than 20 days since I arrived here, and I still haven’t received my psychiatric medication,” she said. “It’s very traumatizing. We’re being locked in for more than a third of the day.”
Todd, the CoreCivic spokesperson, said the facility was impacted by the heavy rains and flash flooding Thursday after remnants of a tropical storm descended on southern California. CoreCivic informed ICE of the situation, and maintenance staff worked to mitigate rising water levels outside the facility and removed any water that seeped into the facility, Todd said.
“No detainees were required to be moved from their assigned living areas during our response,” he said.
In a statement after publication, CoreCivic said no detainees were denied toiletries, placed on lockdown, or on a hunger strike. Officers did not use riot gear, the operator said.
CoreCivic said seven detainees were placed in restrictive housing units last Thursday after a group of detainees “briefly refused to comply with a directive to return to their living areas.”
The restrictive housing units are “provided for various reasons, including medical and mental health observation and administrative/investigative purposes,” a CoreCivic spokesperson said. “It’s also important to note that detainees themselves can and do request protective custody.”
ICE did not respond to requests for comment.
Detainee hospitalized over self-harm incident
Several immigrant rights advocates raised alarm about a detainee inside the California City detention center whom they said attempted to take his own life.
Jeannie Parent, a coordinator with Kern Welcoming and Extending Solidarity to Immigrants, said one of her volunteers spoke with a detainee who said someone tried to take their own life.
The details weren’t immediately clear. CoreCivic confirmed to The Bee that there was an incident of self-harm.
In a Sept. 11 statement, Ryan Gustin, senior director of public affairs for CoreCivic, said that on the morning of Tuesday, Sept. 9, a staff member called a medical emergency “after finding an individual inside of his living area who was observed trying to harm himself.”
The responding staff called for emergency medical services to respond to the facility, who transported the individual to a local hospital for assessment and possible treatment.
“Our government partners at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were notified immediately of this incident,” Gustin said.
California City mayor says conditions are humane
California City Mayor Marquette Hawkins toured the ICE detention facility on Sept. 9 in what he described as an “oversight assessment.”
Detainees had access to dental, medical, psychiatric care, he said. He also said detainees wear either blue or brown uniforms, depending on whether they have a prior criminal conviction.
He said the conditions there appeared to be humane.
Hawkins acknowledged that the facility opened without the proper city permits and that the legal team is looking into levying daily fines.
“We are exploring all options related to CoreCivic not being in compliance with municipal code,” Hawkins said. “As a city, we have to respond to that.”
He also said he spoke with a representative from California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office last week regarding the ICE detention facility “and other matters.”
Hawkins expects to receive an update from the city’s legal team at Tuesday’s California City Council meeting.
This story was originally published September 22, 2025 at 1:55 PM with the headline "Immigrants protest solitary confinement, abuse at CA’s largest ICE detention center."
