A group of immigrants at a detention facility in Southern California launched a hunger strike this week to protest inhumane conditions, according to a coalition of immigrant rights groups.
At least 20 immigrants are taking part in the hunger strike at the Desert View Annex, next door to the Adelanto Immigration and Customs Enforcement Processing Center, where previous hunger strikes have occurred and where four people have died since it reopened last year.
The annex has a bed capacity of 750 and is holding more than 400 detainees, according to state officials.
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 Tuesday and read a statement from the strikers, who demanded that Geo Group Inc., the owner and operator of the facility, remove mold, improve drinking water and provide timely medical care to people with chronic health conditions.
The protesters also alleged that food rations had been reduced at the facility, forcing them to purchase costly items at the commissary. The group said it would stop purchasing food as part of an economic boycott.
A spokesperson for Geo Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The company, however, has told The Times in the past that its services are monitored by ICE and other organizations within the Department of Homeland Security to ensure compliance with federal government detention standards.
Eva Huerta, whose husband was recently transferred from the Adelanto ICE Processing Center to the annex facility next door, described conditions at both facilities as terrible.
Huerta said staff often ignored her husband’s pleas for medical attention.
“When he goes to the doctor for a cough and chest pain, they simply give him two Tylenols,” she said. “They give him two baggies with salt so he can gargle. That’s my grandma’s recipe; that is not medical attention.”
She said her husband had repeatedly asked if he could get a lower bunk because of an elbow injury.
“Nobody deserves to be treated that way now,” Huerta said. “They deserve dignity, and we have to speak out for them.”
Caleb Soto, attorney for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, who represents many detainees, said he has watched people deteriorate week by week when he visits them.
“The food they’re given, as you’ve heard, provides almost no nutrition,” he said. “Medical appointments can take weeks or even months to be approved and often last 60 seconds, ending with a prescription of Tylenol, Advil, or even a salt packet.
“People with serious conditions go untreated, and I’ve watched people age in front of me in a matter of months. They are demanding better,” he added.
The hunger strike comes as the company listed $300 million in annual revenue from its contracts with the federal government, which has been trying to increase the number of detention beds.
But the company has faced ongoing criticism and scrutiny over its treatment of immigrant detainees and conditions at its facilities, in particular at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, which is at the center of a federal class-action lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleges that detainees face similar conditions as those at the annex, such as mold, disease, medical neglect and inadequate food and water.
A recent report by the California Department of Justice found that conditions had worsened at the immigration detention centers in the state.
A 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 facilities peppered throughout the state that are owned and operated mostly by Geo Group and CoreCivic.
At least six people have died in ICE custody in California since the start of 2025 — four at Adelanto and two at the Imperial Regional Detention Facility. In all of the Adelanto cases, family members alleged that the facility’s medical response was inadequate, according to the state report.
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