While authorities with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement are reviewing the contract with the company that runs the Adelanto Detention Facility, activists are calling on local elected officials to permanently close the prison.
On Tuesday, activists with a group called Shutdown Adelanto Coalition gathered outside the prison. The coalition claims that Congressional Republicans are encouraging the Department of Homeland Security to keep the facility open.
In 2022, the Biden Administration listed the detention center as one of six facilities around the country that should be closed or downsized due to high costs, Reuters reports.
In September 2020, ICE was blocked from sending more detainees to Adelanto because of the COVID pandemic. That rule is still in place, meaning the center, which can hold up to 2,000 immigrants, is only housing a fraction of that.
Over the next 60 days, ICE will be reviewing its contract with the facility to either permanently close the site or remodel it.
Eddie Torres, policy coordinator with the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice, said a temporary closure is not what activists are calling for.
“That center should have shut down yesterday,” he added.
Earlier this year, The GEO Group, the company that owns the for-profit prison, was sued by current and former Adelanto detainees who claim toxic chemicals were sprayed at the facility that caused inmates to get sick.
“At this facility, there’s a long track record of abuses, of neglect, of horrible medical care, horrible dental care, and it has all been recorded even by DHS themselves,” Lisbeth Abeln, with the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice, said.
Torres believes that activists like himself and others are making headway and that now is the time to shut the facility down.
“The pressure is mounting with every single phone call, every single march, every single protest, every single action that has led us to this moment,” he said. “For the next 60 days, we’re going to continue to build on that pressure until we finally get that shutdown call from ICE and DHS.”
KTLA reached out to ICE for comment on the potential closure, and spokesperson Jenny Burke offered the following statement:
“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued a 60-day task order with the GEO Group, Inc. for the Adelanto ICE Processing facility in Adelanto, California. While no final decision has been made regarding the disposition of the facility, ICE must consider the effect of ongoing litigation that prevents full use of the facility, likelihood of relief from that litigation, the cost associated with maintaining the facility, and the operational requirements for effective national detention operations. We are also very keenly aware of the impact to both government and contract employees at the facility. The 60-day task order provides both the government and the vendor the opportunity to evaluate all factors to ensure that appropriate accommodations can be made for both personnel, operations, and individuals in custody.
“As part of routine strategic operational planning, Enforcement and Removal Operations continually assesses various factors when contemplating changes to the national facility system. Discussions with detention providers are critical to ICE’s custody management mission and occur on a regular basis. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement continues to provide detention capacity in the area of operations at the adjacent Desert View Annex.”