Conditions at California immigrant detention centers worse under Trump
A new report by the California Department of Justice found that conditions in the state’s immigrant detention facilities have worsened as increased arrests under the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign have led to overcrowding and inadequate medical care.
For the report, Published on FridayCalifornia Department of Justice staff, along with corrections officers and health experts, toured all seven facilities available in 2025 (an eighth facility, the Central Valley Annex in McFarland, began accepting detainees in April). The team analyzed internal documents and detainee records and interviewed detention staff and 194 detainees.
“The Trump Administration’s mass deportation campaign has led to a shocking increase in the detainee population – and facilities are alarmingly unprepared to meet this new demand,” the attorney said. Gen. Rob Bonta made a statement. “During their inspections, my team found evidence of inadequate medical care and heard numerous reports of uncomfortable, unsafe and unsanitary conditions and a lack of basic needs.”
Bonta was scheduled to discuss the report’s findings at a news conference Friday morning.
The inspections were possible because California enacted a law during the first Trump administration requiring public reports detailing state surveillance and conditions in immigrant detention facilities. This is the fifth report released by the California Department of Justice since 2019.
Such reports have assumed great importance as the Trump administration has weakened the Department of Homeland Security’s own oversight mechanisms; for example, he gutted the staff at the offices of the Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and Immigration Detention Ombudsman.
California’s inmate population increased 162% between site visits in 2023 and those in 2025, from 2,300 to more than 6,000, according to the report. Most detainees had no criminal history and were classified as low security.
Collectively, the facilities have the capacity to house approximately 8,200 detainees. Six people have died in ICE custody in California since the beginning of 2025.
Inspectors found that staffing, particularly at the California City and Adelanto facilities, was not keeping up with the increasing number of detainees. The Trump administration has limited access to the bonds, including for vulnerable populations such as pregnant women and people with serious medical conditions.
The intake process for new detainees, which includes medical and mental health screening, is expected to occur within 12 hours of their arrival. But detainees at various facilities report waiting days or weeks before being sorted, assigned housing and medically examined, according to the report. While they waited, some slept on the ground without access to water and other basic needs.
Inmates at the Adelanto facility said water coolers remained empty for hours. Ministry of Justice personnel saw cloudy drinking water coming out of the tap in the women’s housing.
Inmates at the Golden State Annex in McFarland and the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center in Bakersfield said they spend at least $50 a week on supplies to avoid going hungry. In many facilities, detainees reported that food was not cooked properly, diet or allergy friendly environments were not available, and meal times were irregular.
Detainees at all facilities reported that delays in medical treatment, including emergency care, led to preventable crises. In Mesa Verde, for example, the report says, “Delays in medical care, including specialty care and referrals, were common and appeared to result from delays in ICE Healthcare Corps approvals and referrals canceled or canceled due to transfers between facilities.”
Basic needs are also a problem, according to the report. Detainees at the facility in California City said they were so cold that they cut off the ends of their socks to make handmade sleeves and covered the ventilation holes in their cells with paper.
Otay Mesa is the only detention center in California with a policy requiring detainees to be strip-searched after being visited by anyone other than their attorney, according to the report. Detainees there have long said the practice is inhumane and invasive.
A state law requiring inspections of detention facilities expires next year. A bill by State Senator María Elena Durazo (D-Los Angeles) Make controls permanent. Another state bill by Sen. Steve Padilla (D-San Diego) avoid over-marking The proportion of products sold in detention center commissaries, where many products are sold at an inflated price.
