ADELANTO DETAINEES, REPRESENTED BY PUBLIC COUNSEL, CHIRLA, IMMDEF, AND WILLKIE FARR & GALLAGHER LLP FILE FEDERAL LAWSUIT CHALLENGING INHUMANE CONDITIONS AT ADELANTO ICE PROCESSING CENTER

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 26, 2026

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Detainees represented by a coalition of legal advocates file suit on behalf of detained immigrants denied basic medical care, adequate nutrition, and humane treatment.

LOS ANGELES – Public Counsel, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef), and Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP have filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of current detainees, challenging the unconstitutional conditions at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center. The lawsuit exposes a detention system that is cruel, inhumane, and degrading, with Adelanto serving as a stark example of the harm such conditions cause —where people have been forced to live in unsanitary conditions and subjected to punitive isolation and neglect, conditions that would be considered abuse in almost any other setting. It specifically challenges the denial of basic necessities at the facility—including medical and mental health care, access to the outdoors, adequate nutrition and water, and sanitary living conditions.

The Adelanto facility, a for-profit detention center housing nearly 2,000 immigrants, ​​subjects detainees to conditions that violate constitutional rights and basic human dignity. The lawsuit details a pattern of these abuses, including detainees denied critical medical care for life-threatening conditions, inadequate nutrition, lack of basic sanitation, and prolonged solitary confinement. On September 22, 2025, Ismael Ayala-Uribe, a 39-year-old DACA recipient, died in ICE custody at Adelanto. A month later, on October 23, 2025, 56-year-old Gabriel Garcia-Aviles died after being detained at Adelanto for only about a week. Both deaths remain under investigation.

“Our immigrant neighbors are being subjected to conditions that violate their most basic human rights—denied medical care, given inadequate food, and treated with cruelty rather than dignity,” said Rebecca Brown, Supervising Attorney with Public Counsel. “The Constitution does not allow the government to cage people in conditions that cause serious injury, worsening illness, and lasting trauma. This lawsuit demands accountability and immediate action to ensure that every person detained at Adelanto receives the humane treatment they deserve under our Constitution. No one—regardless of immigration status—should be subjected to these conditions.”

“Being detained for a civil infraction should never result in serious illness or even death. Our lawsuit aims to stop the human rights violations that our federal government is committing against people they are choosing to imprison, separating them from their loved ones, and in some instances costing them their lives,” said Alvaro M. Huerta, director of litigation and advocacy at Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef). “Overcrowding, squalid conditions, and denial of proper medical care are pressure tactics ICE is using to coerce ‘voluntary’ departure. ICE bears responsibility for every preventable illness, every avoidable death, and every unconstitutional injustice these conditions bring about, and we intend to hold them fully accountable in court.”

The facility’s population has surged alongside increased ICE enforcement in Los Angeles, reflecting a pattern where reckless, rights-violating street operations continue once people are detained. Inside Adelanto, oversight is practically non-existent, and detainees are often made invisible, facing punitive conditions that include overcrowding and solitary confinement. In fiscal year 2025 alone, 95 individuals were placed in isolation for one or more days. Operated under contract by the private prison company GEO Group, which is guaranteed payment for a minimum of 640 beds, the facility exemplifies a system where human confinement is monetized and the incentive is to keep people detained rather than safe.

“The rights and humanity of our loved ones do not end when forced into these detention camps for weeks, many for months. Our government’s reckless and brutal treatment of our neighbors in the streets continues inside the camp’s walls by private corporations profiting from our suffering.   We must call for accountability and respect of the laws while also appeal to compassion and humane treatment of all whose lives have already been upended by this racially-motivated crackdown,” stated Angelica Salas, Executive Director, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA)

The lawsuit seeks to improve medical care standards, guarantee adequate nutrition and sanitary conditions, end excessive use of solitary confinement, ensure transparency in detention operations, and establish independent oversight to prevent future human rights violations. Detention cannot mean lawlessness and no government agency operates above the Constitution.

Through this litigation, the legal coalition aims to set a precedent that will improve conditions at detention facilities nationwide and challenge a system built on harm that treats detention as the default response rather than investing in care, dignity, and due process.

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