Senate Bill 423, authored by state Sen. Lena Gonzalez, a Long Beach Democrat, would require local law enforcement agencies to release audio recordings and written records of 911 and other emergency calls placed from privately operated detention centers whenever members of the public request them. The measure passed the Legislature this week and now awaits the governor’s signature.

Gonzalez said she introduced the bill after reading investigative reporting by CalMatters that exposed how difficult it can be for journalists and the public to obtain basic information about what happens inside these facilities, even when there’s no active criminal investigation blocking disclosure.

“No private contract or detention center wall should be used to hide dangerous conditions or silence people who have been mistreated inside these facilities,” Gonzalez said in a statement.

The push for transparency traces back to CalMatters’ reporting last year on allegations of sexual assault at the Otay Mesa Detention Center near San Diego. When the news organization filed a California Public Records Act request seeking 911 call recordings and related reports on the alleged assaults, a San Diego County sheriff’s spokesperson said the agency wasn’t investigating the incidents — yet still declined to hand over the records, citing an exemption for “law enforcement investigation” materials.

Gonzalez pointed to that episode on the Senate floor Monday, saying reporters seeking information about incidents at detention facilities routinely “faced severe pushback from law enforcement, citing vague investigatory records exemptions, despite there being no active investigation.”

Under SB 423, agencies would be required to disclose the requested calls and records unless doing so would substantially interfere with an ongoing investigation. The bill also mandates that the names of people involved be redacted before release.

The legislation arrives as the population of immigrants held in California’s ICE facilities has nearly doubled since early 2025, according to data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. Between September 2025 and March 2026, six people died while in custody at two of the state’s privately run detention centers.

At Otay Mesa, which is operated by CoreCivic, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office had an agreement giving the facility’s warden broad discretion over how allegations of sexual assault were investigated — an arrangement that drew criticism from advocates pushing for outside oversight.

In May, the California Attorney General’s office released a lengthy report documenting how a surge in detainee populations has stretched medical care and living conditions thin across the state’s immigration detention system.

Asked about the bill, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office told public broadcaster KQED it has taken no formal position. The Kern County Sheriff’s Department, which oversees another major detention facility, said it will continue following state law “as we always do.” A legislative analysis found no registered opposition to the measure.

SB 423 was co-sponsored by Immigrant Defense Advocates and the First Amendment Coalition and was introduced in June. Paloma Esquivel, a former Los Angeles Times reporter now with the First Amendment Coalition, said she encountered repeated resistance from county sheriffs when trying to obtain 911 records during her time as a journalist.

“We have a very strong interest and even an obligation to understand how these facilities are functioning and what is happening inside these facilities that are being paid for with billions of dollars in taxpayer money,” Esquivel told KQED.

Jackie Gonzalez, co-executive director of Immigrant Defense Advocates, called the bill a meaningful first step toward accountability.

“By supporting SB 423, California sends a clear message that the walls of private detention facilities cannot hide the truth of what is taking place in these facilities,” she said.

The bill now heads to Newsom’s desk, where he will decide whether to sign it into law.

Original source: CalMatters

The post Bill Requiring Release of 911 Call Data From ICE Detention Facilities Heads to Newsom’s Desk 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.

San Diego Police Department officers responded to the 2400 block of Otay Center Drive at 1:14 p.m. Friday, where they learned the motorcyclist was traveling on Otay Center Drive on his 2020 Vento RY motorcycle when the driver of the Jeep struck him and drove away south, Officers Jose Perales said.

The motorcyclist suffered a fractured ankle and a dislocated shoulder and was taken to a hospital for treatment. His injuries are not considered life threatening, police said.

It is unknown whether alcohol was a factor in the collision.

The department’s Traffic Division is handling the investigation of the collision and anyone with information related to it was asked to call 858- 495-7800 or Crime Stoppers at 888-580-8477.

The post Motorcyclist Injured In Hit-And-Run In San Diego appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.