The findings come from Dr. Muthusamy Anandkumar, who was assigned by a judge to oversee medical conditions at the California City Immigration Processing Center, a sprawling facility about 75 miles east of Bakersfield operated by private prison company CoreCivic. The federal government purchased the site earlier this month, though CoreCivic continues to run day-to-day operations.

Anandkumar was appointed in March as part of an ongoing lawsuit filed by seven detainees who argue that conditions inside the facility amount to a violation of their due process rights.

In his report, Anandkumar wrote that the center “lacks a reliable system for consistently providing adequate medical care, placing individuals at serious risk of both immediate and long-term harm.” He added that the pattern of failures points to systemic problems within the facility’s health care operations rather than isolated lapses.

The doctor was careful to note that individual health care workers were not to blame. Instead, he pointed to understaffing, weak management and insufficient oversight as the root causes. At times, he found, staff members were pulled out of ongoing training sessions to cover shifts because the facility was short-handed.

“As a result, employees who had not completed their own training were, in turn, training new hires,” Anandkumar wrote. “Given the number of patients and the seriousness of their medical and mental health needs, these significant shortcomings contribute to an unsafe environment.”

The monitor identified 13 separate deficiencies within CoreCivic’s medical program at the California City site, including inadequate emergency response, insufficient dental care and poor management of chronic illnesses. He also found that detainees were not given timely access to prescribed medications.

ICE opened the detention center on the grounds of a shuttered state prison and began housing detainees there in August. Just a month later, Disability Rights California, a state advocacy organization, conducted a two-day inspection of the facility and reported that staff were failing to distribute medication for potentially life-threatening conditions and were not scheduling necessary surgeries in a timely manner.

That inspection’s findings closely mirror what Anandkumar documented ten months later, including delayed responses to urgent medical requests and failure to distribute medication for conditions requiring ongoing management, such as diabetes, high blood pressure and seizure disorders.

A CoreCivic spokesperson said the facility offers daily access to physical and mental health services, along with round-the-clock emergency medical care.

“When specialized or advanced care is required beyond what is available on-site, our medical staff coordinates with community physicians, hospitals and specialty providers to facilitate access to medically necessary treatment,” said Ryan Gustin, a CoreCivic spokesperson. “While we work diligently to arrange and facilitate those appointments, the scheduling, availability and capacity of outside providers are not something the facility controls.”

Gustin added that an ICE compliance officer monitors adherence to detention standards at the facility.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on behalf of detainees held at the site, alleges that people in custody lack sufficient clothing to withstand cold desert nights and are being denied medical care for life-threatening conditions. The complaint also states that detainees with mobility impairments have been denied wheelchairs, with some unable to bathe or dress themselves without assistance.

Sokhean Keo, one of the detainees named as a plaintiff in the case against ICE, said in a statement distributed by the ACLU that he never received medication prescribed to treat an infection.

“If this system isn’t changed,” Keo said, “sick people are going to die.”

Original source: CalMatters

The post Judge Sends Doctor to Inspect California’s Largest ICE Detention Facility — Here’s What He Found appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Dr. Muthusamy Anandkumar, who was assigned by a judge to inspect conditions at the California City Immigration Processing Center, concluded that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is not providing detainees with adequate medical care. His report describes detainees going without prescribed medications and waiting months for cancer treatment at the facility, located roughly 75 miles east of Bakersfield.

The center is operated by CoreCivic, a private prison contractor. The federal government bought the property earlier this month, though CoreCivic continues to run day-to-day operations there.

Anandkumar’s appointment stems from a lawsuit filed by seven detainees who argue that conditions inside the facility violate their constitutional right to due process. A federal judge named him as an independent monitor in March to assess the situation firsthand.

In his findings, Anandkumar wrote that the facility “lacks a reliable system to consistently provide adequate health care, placing individuals at serious risk of both immediate and long-term harm.” He added that the pattern of problems pointed to systemic breakdowns in how healthcare is delivered, rather than isolated incidents.

According to the report, the shortcomings are not the fault of individual medical staff but stem from deeper issues with staffing levels, management and oversight. Anandkumar noted that employees were sometimes pulled from training sessions to fill gaps in coverage caused by staff shortages — meaning workers who had not completed their own training were left to instruct incoming employees.

“Given the number of patients and the seriousness of their medical and mental health needs, these substantial gaps contribute to an unsafe environment,” he wrote.

The monitor identified 13 separate areas of concern within CoreCivic’s healthcare operations, including shortcomings in emergency response, dental services and the management of chronic illnesses. He also found that detainees were not getting timely access to medications they had been prescribed.

ICE began housing detainees at the site — a former state prison — in August. The following month, the advocacy group Disability Rights California conducted its own two-day review of the facility and reported similarly troubling findings, including failures to provide medication for life-threatening conditions and delays in scheduling necessary surgeries.

The overlap between that September inspection and Anandkumar’s report, issued roughly ten months later, is notable. Both documented slow responses to urgent medical requests and lapses in distributing medication needed to manage conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure and seizure disorders.

CoreCivic spokesperson Ryan Gustin defended the facility’s healthcare operations, saying detainees have daily access to physical and mental health services and that emergency medical care is available around the clock. He said that when specialized treatment is needed beyond what’s available on-site, facility staff work to coordinate care with outside hospitals and physicians — though he noted that scheduling and provider availability are ultimately outside the facility’s control.

Gustin added that compliance with detention standards is monitored by an ICE compliance officer assigned to the facility.

The underlying lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, raises additional concerns beyond medical care. Plaintiffs allege that detainees lack adequate clothing to withstand cold desert nights and that some with mobility impairments have been denied wheelchairs, leaving them unable to bathe or dress themselves without assistance.

Among the plaintiffs is Sokhean Keo, a detainee at the facility, who said in a statement released through the ACLU that he never received medication prescribed to treat an infection.

“If there is no change to this system,” Keo said, “sick people are going to die.”

Original source: CalMatters

The post Doctor’s Inspection of California’s Largest ICE Detention Facility Reveals Troubling Conditions, Court-Ordered Report Shows appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

The Department of Homeland Security has agreed to buy the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego County and the California City Detention Center in Kern County from CoreCivic, the private prison company that has operated both sites, in a deal valued at $1.5 billion. According to federal officials, the purchase is a direct response to years of pushback from Sacramento aimed at curbing the expansion — and even the existence — of ICE detention facilities within state lines.

ICE spokesperson Jason Sweeney said the two facilities are essential to maintaining the agency’s detention network along the West Coast. Unlike states such as Florida and Oklahoma, he said, California offers ICE little cooperation from state and local governments in securing detention space.

“Politicians who champion the state’s sanctuary stance keep pushing laws to ban or financially cripple private prisons,” Sweeney said.

The standoff dates back to Trump’s first term, when Democratic lawmakers in Sacramento moved quickly to blunt the administration’s immigration enforcement push. In 2019, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation intended to phase out private, for-profit prisons and immigration detention centers in California by 2028. CoreCivic rival GEO Group, along with the federal government, sued, arguing the law violated the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause by improperly interfering with federal authority. They won, and in 2022 the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the state’s ban on privately run immigration detention centers.

Since then, state lawmakers have tried other approaches, including proposals to impose steep taxes on private detention operators to make them financially unsustainable.

The property sale comes as California Attorney General Rob Bonta continues to battle the Trump administration over a separate, contested ICE facility being built near Gilroy, a onetime farming community south of San Jose that has grown into a city of about 60,000 surrounded by garlic fields and vineyards. The state contends the land has been zoned exclusively for agricultural use since 1967.

“ICE’s plans to build a facility near Gilroy violate multiple federal laws,” Bonta said, arguing the agency failed to conduct required environmental reviews before construction began.

Federal contracting records show the U.S. General Services Administration signed a 20-year lease in 2025 with Beverly Hills-based ECG 6 LLC for the Gilroy property, valued at $26.5 million. In July, federal officials agreed to pause construction on the 26-acre site while litigation proceeds.

California officials, meanwhile, have leaned on another law from Trump’s first term to demand access to inspect detention facilities. In December, Bonta sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security citing “dangerous and inadequate living conditions” at the California City facility. In San Diego County, local health inspectors remain locked in a legal dispute with CoreCivic over access to inspect the Otay Mesa center.

Claire Trickler-McNulty, a former senior ICE official during the Biden administration, said selling the properties outright to the federal government will likely shield them from California’s health and safety inspection authority.

“It gives them protection from state and local laws, especially when it comes to zoning rules and environmental requirements,” Trickler-McNulty said.

A shift in strategy

A year ago, President Trump signed a sweeping spending package that dramatically boosted funding for immigration enforcement, allocating $45 billion to ICE for detention capacity. The agency initially planned to build new detention centers across the country.

According to Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior researcher with the American Immigration Council, the purchase of Otay Mesa and California City signals a notable departure from that earlier plan, known as the ICE Detention Facility Reengineering Initiative. Unveiled in early 2026, that blueprint called for converting warehouses into massive detention complexes capable of holding between 7,500 and 10,000 people each — facilities larger than any built in the United States since the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

Reichlin-Melnick described the overall detention system as one that was never carefully designed. Todd Lyons, ICE’s then-acting director, told attendees at the 2025 Border Security Expo in Phoenix that he wanted deportations to run “like Amazon Prime, but with human beings.”

“At no point did anyone sit down and thoughtfully design the ‘Amazon Prime for human beings,’” Reichlin-Melnick said.

That warehouse-conversion initiative has largely stalled, undone by lawsuits, an unrealistic timeline, and a nationwide shortage of correctional staff and medical workers, he said. But the billions in earmarked funding still need to be spent before it expires.

“We expect them to buy other facilities,” Reichlin-Melnick said.

A former senior Homeland Security official suggested conditions for detainees could actually improve under direct federal ownership.

“It might be better for ICE to take over a proper facility than to use warehouses, house people in makeshift facilities, or rely on centers run by private companies,” the former official said.

Purchase prices far exceed assessed value

County assessor records show the federal government paid well above market value for both properties. In San Diego County, the Otay Mesa facility carries an assessed value of $164.9 million for the current fiscal year — yet DHS paid $739.2 million, roughly 4.5 times that figure. In Kern County, the California City facility was assessed at $171.5 million, while DHS paid $732.6 million, about 4.3 times its assessed worth.

A former senior ICE official, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, questioned whether the price tag matches actual security needs. “$1.5 billion just for the facilities? How many migrants who pose a real threat to national and public safety are going to move through there? And what about the people we actually need to keep off the streets?” the former official asked.

Anthony Martinez, a spokesperson for Gov. Newsom, called the administration’s deportation agenda “a reckless and cruel use of taxpayer money,” accusing federal officials of funneling billions to private contractors while avoiding transparency about conditions inside the facilities.

San Diego County Supervisor Paloma Aguirre drew a direct line between the sale and CoreCivic’s political spending, pointing to the company’s $500,000 donation to Trump’s inaugural committee. That contribution, she said, preceded what she called a “multibillion-dollar taxpayer-funded windfall” that will help the company pay down debt while allowing it to continue operating the facilities. She argued the arrangement treats detained immigrants as a revenue stream rather than as people.

CoreCivic said the facilities’ valuations were determined through the federally mandated appraisal process, which is designed to establish fair market value.

“CoreCivic has contributed to presidential inaugural events across multiple administrations, including Democratic ones. The federal appraisal process is conducted independently of any political contributions,” said Steven Owen, the company’s vice president of communications.

Owen added that California’s property tax system, shaped by Proposition 13, often causes assessed values to diverge significantly from market value over time, since the law limits annual increases in assessed value outside of a sale. He said the two figures “are not directly comparable.”

Securities filings show CoreCivic expects to generate roughly $130 million annually from managing the California City detention center going forward.

Will more federal purchases follow?

Trickler-McNulty said an earlier, since-abandoned plan to purchase two dozen warehouse facilities under former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem may offer clues about what current Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s agency has in mind next. An internal roadmap obtained last year by the Washington Post identified at least 10 “turnkey” facilities originally targeted for purchase under Noem, including the California City site — though not Otay Mesa. The rest of those properties are located in Texas and Oklahoma.

Buying up detention facilities outright removes financial risk for both private prison operators and the administration’s deportation program, said R. Andrew Free, an immigration attorney and writer. He pointed to the 2019 divestment from CoreCivic and GEO Group by California’s two largest public pension funds, which contributed to a liquidity crunch and a steep drop in both companies’ stock prices five years ago.

If private prison investment becomes politically untenable on a national scale, Free said, federal ownership shields the companies — and the detention system itself — from further divestment pressure and from the kind of environmental reviews that have derailed similar projects in other states.

“This is a significant amount of money the federal government is handing over up front,” Free said.

He added that local and state governments will largely be locked out of oversight at these facilities, though they will still have some contact with people held there. Detention centers “will still need police and fire services, they’ll still need coroners,” Free said, but he noted that most traditional state inspection authority has likely already ended.

Free said there are two ways to interpret the expansion of ICE’s detention footprint. One is relatively benign — simply favors from a friendly administration to valued contractors. The other is more troubling.

“The cynical view is that this will definitely be used to hold people who aren’t migrants,” Free said. “That it will be used to detain American citizens.”

Original source: CalMatters

The post What the Sale of Two ICE Detention Centers Reveals About Trump’s New Immigration Strategy appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

The Department of Homeland Security recently completed a $1.5 billion purchase of two major detention sites from private prison operator CoreCivic — the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego County and the California City Detention Facility in Kern County. Federal officials say the move is a direct answer to years of political pushback from Sacramento against ICE’s presence in the state.

“Unlike in states like Florida and Oklahoma, ICE can not rely on local state and county partners for detention space in California,” said ICE spokesman Jason Sweeney, adding that state lawmakers have repeatedly tried to outlaw or financially cripple private detention operators.

The friction goes back to Trump’s first term, when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a 2019 law intended to phase out private, for-profit detention facilities in California by 2028. GEO Group and the federal government sued, and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the ban in 2022, ruling it interfered with federal authority. Since then, state lawmakers have tried other tactics, including proposals to tax private detention centers heavily enough to make them unprofitable.

The purchases also arrive amid an ongoing legal battle between California Attorney General Rob Bonta and the federal government over a planned ICE facility near Gilroy, on farmland south of San Jose that state law has restricted to agricultural use since 1967. Bonta argues the project violates federal environmental law, and ICE agreed in July to pause construction while the lawsuit continues. Records show the General Services Administration signed a 20-year, $26.5 million lease for that site with a Beverly Hills-based landlord in 2025.

California officials have also used state inspection authority to scrutinize detention conditions. Bonta sent DHS a letter in December citing “dangerous and inadequate” conditions at the California City facility, and San Diego County health inspectors remain locked in a legal dispute with CoreCivic over access to Otay Mesa. Claire Trickler-McNulty, a former senior ICE official under the Biden administration, said federal ownership of the properties will likely shield them from those kinds of local inspections and zoning rules altogether.

The purchases mark a striking reversal from the sweeping expansion plan the administration unveiled in early 2026, which envisioned converting warehouses into massive detention complexes capable of holding up to 10,000 people apiece — facilities larger than any built in the U.S. since Japanese internment camps during World War II. That plan, known as the ICE Detention Re-engineering Initiative, has largely stalled amid lawsuits, unworkable timelines and a nationwide shortage of correctional and health care staff, according to Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council.

“At no point did anyone sit down to intelligently design the ‘Amazon Prime for human beings,'” Reichlin-Melnick said, referencing a comment from former acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, who once said he wanted deportations to run like an efficient shipping operation.

With billions in detention funding still needing to be spent before it expires, Reichlin-Melnick expects ICE to pursue more facility purchases like the ones in California.

The price tags on the two properties have raised eyebrows. County assessor records show Otay Mesa’s assessed value for the current tax year is $164.9 million, while the federal government paid $739.2 million — more than four times that figure. In Kern County, the California City site was assessed at $171.5 million but sold for $732.6 million.

A former senior ICE official, speaking on condition of anonymity, questioned whether the spending reflects an actual security need. “So, $1.5 billion just for the facilities and how many migrants are ever going to come in and out of there who are national security and public safety threats?” the official asked.

CoreCivic defended the pricing, saying it was determined through a federally required appraisal process meant to establish fair market value. Company spokesman Steven Owen also noted that California’s Proposition 13 limits how often commercial properties can be reassessed, meaning assessed values often lag far behind current market prices. “The two figures are not directly comparable,” Owen said.

Newsom’s office pushed back sharply. Spokesperson Anthony Martinez called the administration’s deportation strategy a “reckless and cruel misuse of taxpayer money,” accusing federal officials of funneling billions to contractors while avoiding scrutiny of detention conditions.

San Diego County Supervisor Paloma Aguirre drew a direct line between the sale and CoreCivic’s political giving, noting the company donated $500,000 to Trump’s inaugural committee. She described the resulting contract as a “billion-dollar taxpayer-funded windfall” that will help erase the company’s debt while allowing it to keep operating the facilities — treating detained immigrants, she said, as a revenue source rather than people. CoreCivic said it has donated to inaugural events under both Democratic and Republican administrations and that the appraisal process is independent of political contributions. The company expects to earn about $130 million annually running the California City facility, according to its SEC filings.

Looking ahead, Trickler-McNulty said a previously abandoned plan under former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to purchase two dozen warehouse-style facilities may offer clues to what current Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s agency will pursue next. Internal documents obtained by the Washington Post identified at least 10 “turnkey” facilities under consideration, including California City, along with sites in Texas and Oklahoma. Otay Mesa was not among them.

Immigration attorney R. Andrew Free said outright federal ownership eliminates financial risk for both the government and private prison operators, pointing to the steep stock declines CoreCivic and GEO Group suffered after California’s two largest public pension funds divested from the companies in 2019. Buying the properties outright, he said, insulates them from further divestment pressure and from the kind of environmental reviews that have derailed similar detention projects elsewhere.

“This is a big upfront cash award from the federal government,” Free said.

He added that local governments will likely lose most oversight authority over the facilities, though police, fire and coroner services will still be needed. Free said there are two ways to interpret the expansion — as a straightforward reward to a favored contractor, or as something more concerning.

“The cynical view is this definitely will be used to hold people who are not migrants,” Free said. “That it will be used to hold U.S. citizens.”

Original source: CalMatters

The post Trump Administration’s Latest Immigration Enforcement Plan Comes Into Focus With Purchase of Two California ICE Detention Facilities appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

The order, issued Wednesday by U.S. District Judge James Simmons Jr. of the Southern District of California, requires the privately run detention center to permit an inspection of the 1,400-bed facility. The ruling could shape how counties across California use a new state law that gives local governments additional authority to inspect privately operated immigration detention centers.

San Diego County sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in March after two county supervisors and a health inspector were denied full access to the Otay Mesa facility, which is owned and operated by CoreCivic. The county was the first in California to attempt to use inspection powers granted under a 2024 state law.

Simmons indicated last month that the county was likely to prevail on its claim that it has authority under state law to conduct public health inspections at the facility.

In Wednesday’s order, the judge wrote that the inspection must be completed “as soon as possible” and no later than June 17, 2026. He also directed CoreCivic to provide a list of policies and procedures requested by the county.

“The county is responsible for the safety and health of anyone within its jurisdiction, including people detained in the facility,” County Counsel Damon Brown said at a news conference after a May hearing.

Otay Mesa is one of eight privately operated immigration detention centers in California. Together, those facilities hold about 5,300 people, up from roughly 3,100 shortly after President Trump took office in April 2025 and began a nationwide immigration enforcement campaign.

The judge also instructed county officials to work with the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and CoreCivic to resolve details of the inspection. Those issues include who may participate, which parts of the facility may be reviewed, and how officials should obtain consent from detainees for interviews and medical record reviews.

During the court hearing, CoreCivic attorney Anne Orcutt said the Tennessee-based private prison company had filed a California Public Records Act request with San Diego County to determine whether county supervisors typically accompany health officials during public health inspections.

Speaking by Zoom, Orcutt described the county’s request to inspect the facility as unprecedented and discriminatory toward the federal government.

San Diego County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer, who was denied access during the attempted inspection in February, dismissed that argument as a distraction.

“That is a clear red herring,” Lawson-Remer said. “The first people who arrived were a public health official and a nurse. They were not allowed access to any of the relevant documents and were removed from the facility. The public health inspection was denied with or without our presence.”

At a March news conference announcing the lawsuit, county supervisors said reporting by CalMatters had played an important role in prompting the inspection order. Supervisor Paloma Aguirre specifically cited the case of a deaf Mongolian man who spent more than four months in custody without access to a Mongolian sign language interpreter, a situation his attorney described as total isolation.

CoreCivic spokesman Ryan Gustin said the company’s top priority is “the safety, health and well-being of the individuals in our care.”

“We fully respect the judicial process and remain committed to working with both ICE and San Diego County to reach a mutually agreed-upon resolution to this matter,” Gustin said.

Original source: CalMatters

The post Federal Judge Orders San Diego County Health Inspection at Immigration Detention Center appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

U.S. District Judge James Simmons Jr. of the Southern District of California issued the order Wednesday, directing the 1,400-bed facility to allow the county’s inspection to move forward as soon as possible and no later than June 17, 2026. The Otay Mesa facility is owned and operated by CoreCivic under contract with federal immigration authorities.

The ruling comes after San Diego County sued the Department of Homeland Security in March, arguing that county officials were unlawfully denied access when they attempted to inspect the facility earlier this year. The county sought to enforce a California law passed in 2024 that authorizes local health officials to inspect immigrant detention centers.

San Diego County is the first county in California to try to use that authority. The case could influence how other local governments across the state handle inspections of detention centers that hold people in federal immigration custody.

In a prior ruling last month, Simmons indicated the county was likely to prevail on its claim that it has authority under state law to conduct public health inspections at the facility. In Wednesday’s order, he also directed CoreCivic to provide the county with a list of requested policies and procedures.

“The county is responsible for the safety and the health of anyone who is within this jurisdiction, which includes those detained in the facility,” County Counsel Damon Brown said during a May news conference following a court hearing.

Otay Mesa is one of eight privately run immigration detention centers in California. Together, those facilities are holding about 5,300 people, an increase from roughly 3,100 shortly after President Donald Trump took office in April 2025 and began a nationwide immigration enforcement push.

The judge ordered county officials to confer with the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and CoreCivic to work out the details of the inspection. Those issues include who may take part, which areas of the detention center may be inspected, and how detainees’ consent will be obtained for interviews and review of medical records.

During the court hearing, CoreCivic attorney Anne Orcutt said the company has filed a California Public Records Act request with San Diego County to determine whether county supervisors typically accompany health officials during public health inspections. Orcutt, who appeared by Zoom, described the county’s attempted inspection as unusual and argued it unfairly singled out the federal government.

San Diego County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer, who was among the officials denied access during the February inspection attempt, rejected that argument.

“That is the epitome of a red herring,” Lawson-Remer said. “The first people who arrived were a public health officer and a nurse. They were not allowed access to any of the relevant documents and were kicked out of the facility. The public health inspection was denied with or without our presence.”

County supervisors announced the lawsuit in March and said reporting by CalMatters had helped prompt their concerns about conditions at the facility. Supervisor Paloma Aguirre specifically cited the case of a deaf Mongolian man who was detained for more than four months without access to a Mongolian Sign Language interpreter. His attorney said the lack of communication amounted to conditions similar to solitary confinement.

CoreCivic spokesman Ryan Gustin said the company remains focused on the people held at the facility.

“Our top priority is the safety, health and well-being of the individuals entrusted to our care,” Gustin said. “We fully respect the judicial process and remain committed to working with both ICE and San Diego County to find a mutually agreed-upon resolution to this matter.”

Original source: CalMatters

The post Judge Orders San Diego County Health Inspection at Immigrant Detention Center appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Under a 2020 memorandum of understanding between the sheriff’s department and CoreCivic, detention center Warden Christopher LaRose has authority to decide whether to investigate rape allegations at the facility, which currently houses just under 1,500 federal immigration detainees, most of whom are in custody awaiting hearings and have not been convicted of a crime.

CalMatters obtained the memorandum after seeking additional information about the alleged rapes and four attempted sexual assaults through a California Public Records Act request. While a sheriff’s spokesperson said the agency was not investigating those cases, he said he was unable to turn over additional records because they were part of “a law enforcement investigation.”

CoreCivic in a written statement after this story first published said Otay Mesa staff conduct an administrative investigation of each sex assault allegation, though a spokesperson said the company does not conduct criminal investigations of sexual abuse allegations because it’s not a law enforcement agency.

“When a matter requires law enforcement intervention, we refer it to the appropriate authorities,” CoreCivic spokesperson Ryan Gustin said in a statement.

The company manages the detention center under a contract with the Department of Homeland Security and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency’s Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations. ICE officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Gustin said all allegations are recorded in a database, and “refer any potentially criminal matter to law enforcement.”

“Substantiated allegations result in disciplinary action and, where appropriate, referral for prosecution,” Gustin said. “If an individual is found to be at substantial risk of imminent sexual abuse, immediate protective action is taken.”

The company said that it has a zero tolerance policy for sex abuse and sexual harassment, and said detainees, staff or anyone present at a facility can report allegations in writing or through a hotline number. The company also said it offers anyone who makes an allegation medical, mental health and emotional support services.

CoreCivic did not respond to questions on whether it has any similar memoranda of understanding with other agencies, or details on any previous memorandum of understanding in San Diego County.

Seven privately run immigrant detention centers operate in California, with CoreCivic holding contracts for two of them. It could not immediately be determined if other detention centers have similar agreements with local law enforcement agencies.

“We’re horrified but not surprised to learn that numerous sexual assaults went uninvestigated at a CoreCivic facility,” said Susan Beaty, senior attorney with the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice advocacy group.

“Local and state enforcement agencies have a responsibility to use their power to protect the rights of Californians in detention, and hold accountable both ICE and private prison companies that profit to the tune of billions of taxpayer dollars to incarcerate immigrants in our state.”

A 2022 audit conducted by the outside company Creative Corrections found the facility met all federal standards for preventing sexual assaults.

San Diego County Board of Supervisors Chair Terra Lawson-Remer said she plans to question San Diego County Sheriff Kelly Martinez at a hearing Tuesday night on ICE transfers from county jails.

“I do not have much confidence at all in CoreCivic’s ability to investigate these very serious allegations,” she said earlier this month.

Supervisor questions sheriff after CalMatters story

A member of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors pressed San Diego County Sheriff Kelly Martinez about the memorandum of understanding after this story published Tuesday night. Sheriff Kelly Martinez said her department doesn’t have enough staff to investigate allegations of criminal misconduct at every civil and criminal detention facility in San Diego, including Otay Mesa.

“There’s something about an MOU that explicitly delegates to CoreCivic —” San Diego County Board of Supervisors Chair Terra Lawson-Remer began to say.

“Well, we could not have an MOU at all,” Martinez interrupted, “and they wouldn’t report to us and we wouldn’t investigate. So we have to also work with the people in charge of the facility, the reporting mechanism would still have to come from the facility.”

Lawson-Remer called the decision to turn over criminal investigation decisions to a private company “troubling,” and asked whether Martinez could sign an MOU that required a sheriff’s office investigation of every criminal allegation.

“I don’t know if we have the staff capacity for that, perhaps you could give me a bunch more positions and we could create an investigative unit,” Martinez said, and laughed.

“I completely understand your concern, and that it doesn’t look like it’s an appropriate way to investigate these complaints but I really don’t know how many are occurring.”

Martinez went on to say she was responsible for her own detention facilities, and investigating ones that don’t belong to San Diego County is “a difficult ask.”

San Diego County is in the midst of a separate legal battle with CoreCivic over the Otay Mesa Detention Center. In a lawsuit filed this month, the county alleges the Trump administration and Tennessee-based CoreCivic illegally blocked a public health inspection of the Otay Mesa Detention Center. According to the lawsuit, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement initially cleared county officials to enter the facility but reversed that decision when the inspection team arrived.

911 calls from detention center

Overall, there were 142 calls for service to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department for the Otay Mesa Detention Center in 2024. Fourteen were identified as related to the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), a 2003 federal law designed to prevent, detect and respond to sexual abuse and harassment in correctional facilities.

Last year, there were 159 calls for service to the Otay Mesa facility. Twenty-one calls were related to the Prison Rape Elimination Act, and of those, seven were allegations of rape.

CalMatters used a Public Records Act request to obtain a digital log generated by 911 dispatchers and emergency services for 2024 and 2025.

CalMatters attempted to obtain additional records about the sexual assault and attempted sexual assault incidents, such as the audio recordings of the 911 calls and the full dispatch log, but the sheriff’s department refused to release them stating the records were “records of a law enforcement investigation, or any investigatory or security files compiled by a law enforcement agency are exempt from disclosure.”

The records CalMatters obtained gave no indication whether the victims were detainees or employees. Similarly, the records gave no indication about the perpetrators.

The department’s memorandum of understanding with CoreCivic was signed and dated by former San Diego Sheriff Bill Gore in 2020.

“Under the Memorandum of Understanding…the facility’s Warden is responsible for investigating any allegation of sexual assault or abuse,” said Lt. David Collins, the media relations director for the sheriff’s department. Collins referred further questions about the incidents to CoreCivic.

He said CoreCivic “did not request our involvement” for any cases last year.

“Because no criminal investigations were initiated by the Sheriff’s Office, no reports were forwarded to the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office for consideration of charges,” he said.

If deputies had investigated, the MOU would require them to forward their findings to CoreCivic.

“Upon completion/closure of an investigation, Investigating Agency will forward a copy of the investigation report to the Facility for retention as part of Facility’s record-keeping requirements,” the MOU states.

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