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

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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

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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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