A group of immigrants at a Southern California facility went on hunger strike this week to protest harsh conditions, according to a coalition of immigrant rights groups.
At least 20 immigrants are participating in a hunger strike at the Desert View Annex, near the Adelanto Immigration and Customs Enforcement Processing Center, where previous hunger strikes have occurred and where four people have died since it opened last year.
The annex has 750 beds and holds more than 400 inmates, according to state officials.
The Defend Migrants Alliance of Southern California, a coalition of activists, labor unions and community organizations, announced the strike during a morning news conference.
The coalition said the strike began on Tuesday and read a statement from the strikers, who wanted Geo Group Inc., the owner of the facility, to remove mold, improve drinking water and provide timely health care to people with chronic health conditions.
The protesters also alleged that food has been reduced in the center, forcing them to buy expensive items from the commissary. The organization said it will stop buying food as part of the economic boycott.
A spokesperson for Geo Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The company, however, previously told The Times that its services are monitored by ICE and other agencies within the Department of Homeland Security to ensure compliance with federal government detention standards.
Eva Huerta, whose husband was recently moved from the Adelanto ICE Processing Center to a nearby annex, described conditions at both facilities as dire.
Huerta said the staff often ignored her husband's pleas for medical attention.
“When he goes to the doctor for a cough and chest pain, they just give him two Tylenol,” he said. “They gave him two bags of salt so he could roll. That's grandma's recipe; that's not a cure.”
She said her husband has been asking several times if he can get her a lower bed because of her elbow injury.
“No one should be treated that way now,” Huerta said. “They deserve dignity, and we must speak up for them.”
Caleb Soto, a lawyer for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, which represents many prisoners, said he watches people deteriorate week after week when he visits them.
“The food they are being given, as you have heard, is not nutritious at all,” he said. “Medical appointments can take weeks or even months to be approved and often last 60 seconds, ending with a prescription for Tylenol, Advil, or a packet of salt.
“People with serious conditions are not treated, and I have seen people age in front of me in a few months.
The hunger strike comes as the company is listed $300 million in annual revenue from its contracts with the federal government, which was trying to increase the number of prison beds.
But the company has faced ongoing criticism and scrutiny over its handling of immigration detainees and the conditions at its facilities, particularly at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, located in the facility. federal class action lawsuit center.
I the case alleges that those arrested face the same conditions such as those in the appendix, such as fungus, disease, medical neglect and inadequate food and water.
A a recent report by the California Department of Justice they found that the situation has worsened in the immigration detention centers in the province.
California law requires the state's top law enforcement agency to conduct inspections and publish its findings on the conditions of immigration detention facilities operating within the state.
As of May, there were eight privatized centers across the state owned and operated mainly by Geo Group and CoreCivic.
At least six people have died in ICE custody in California since early 2025 — four at Adelanto and two at the Imperial Regional Detention Facility. In all of the Adelanto cases, family members alleged that the agency's response was inadequate, according to the state report.
