L.T. v. ICE.

On January 26, 2026, Public Counsel, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef), and Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of former detainees, challenging the unconstitutional conditions at the Adelanto ICE detention center.

The lawsuit exposes a detention system built on cruelty and disregard for human dignity and human life. Adelanto stands as one of the clearest examples of this harm as our clients suffer neglect and deliberate indifference that would be recognized as abuse and cruelty anywhere else. At its core, the case demands accountability for the facility’s denial of the most basic necessities: medical and mental health care, access to fresh air and sunlight, adequate food and clean water, and living conditions that meet the minimum standards of sanitation. It calls out a system that treats human beings as disposable and insists on the fundamental truth that no one deserves to be subjected to such conditions.

The Adelanto ICE prison is a privately run detention center that has capacity to detain 1,940 people. The lawsuit exposes its notorious conditions that trample constitutional rights and strip people of basic dignity. The lawsuit recognizes a disturbing pattern that has worsened with the ramped up cruel mass deportation agenda: individuals with life‑threatening conditions are denied essential medical care, people are forced to endure filthy and unsanitary living spaces, inadequate food and water, and many suffer from the psychological trauma of prolonged solitary confinement.

About the Facility

Human Cost of Detention

The human toll of Adelanto’s inhumane conditions is starkest for those with medical needs, whether long‑standing or triggered by the trauma of ICE arrest and confinement. People who should have received immediate, compassionate care instead find themselves fighting for their lives inside a system that treats their suffering as an inconvenience.

One plaintiff with a pituitary tumor was denied the critical treatment his condition demanded, left to deteriorate behind bars. Another is gradually losing his hearing and eyesight because essential medical attention was withheld; his health sacrificed to a system that routinely ignores urgent needs.

These are not isolated failures, they are symptoms of a detention regime that consistently places people in harm’s way. The consequences can be fatal. On September 23, 2025, 39‑year‑old DACA recipient Ismael Ayala‑Uribe died in ICE custody at Adelanto. His death remains under investigation, but the truth is already undeniable: the conditions inside this facility endanger lives and are resulting in death.

This lawsuit asserts that no one, regardless of immigration status, should be subjected to conditions so cruel that they become life‑threatening. And it calls for accountability from a system that has long operated without transparency, oversight, or regard for the people trapped within it.

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