Three detained men who met this week with members of Congress at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center to discuss conditions inside the detention facility and offer details about an ongoing hunger strike have been transferred to solitary confinement, several detainees told the Southern California News Group, a move some believe was retaliatory.
On Tuesday, roughly 30 facility workers reportedly came into a unit dressed in riot gear holding pepper spray, tear gas canisters and zip ties, according to several detained people, before removing two people who spoke to the three-member congressional group the day before and sending them to solitary confinement. On Wednesday, the third person who spoke to the representatives allegedly was taken from his unit and sent to the solitary housing unit.
Two of those men were threatened with being transferred to another facility for their role in the hunger strike, they said.
“I’m doing this for the people [inside Adelanto] because they treat us like we don’t matter, like we’re not humans… as if being immigrants was the worst mistake we made. I’m doing this for us [people detained] … I’m doing this for our respect as human beings and for conditions to get better,” said one of the men visited by Congress via phone from solitary confinement.
At least two units inside the ICE detention center were on lockdown for around 24 hours beginning on Tuesday, four detained men told the Southern California News Group.
During that time, detained people in those impacted portions of the facility had no access to commissary, showers, phones, or their medication, and limited access to water.
U.S. Rep. Judy Chu (D-Pasadena) said she was “horrified” to hear about the alleged retaliation faced by the three men she and Reps. Pete Aguilar and Jimmy Gomez visited on Monday.
“The fact that they are being punished for speaking out about these conditions only underscores the cruelty and corrupt management of a facility that is profiting off of their suffering,” Chu said.
A detained man participating in the hunger strike said a facility worker told his unit, “Can you guys do me a favor and stop lying to these Congress people?”
“It does seem pretty obvious that they were clearly targeted for their participation in talking with the congressional representatives,” said Melissa Shepard, director of legal services at Immigrant Defenders Law Center. “[Solitary confinement] is a punishment and used clearly as a deterrent for behaviors that [facility workers] don’t want to tolerate. ”
GEO Group, the private-prison company that owns and operates the Adelanto ICE facilities, referred questions about claims of retaliation to ICE. ICE referred the Southern California News Group to the Department of Homeland Security.
DHS did not respond to repeated requests for comment. In a previous statement to the Southern California News Group, DHS officials said: “There is no hunger strike at Adelanto, and no one is being abused. Members of Congress should be looking after the needs of their American citizen constituents rather than creating divisive false media narratives.”
For the family of one detained man, hearing about the retaliation their loved one is enduring has been a “nightmare.”
“It’s been horrible. It’s been a nightmare. … There’s nothing you can do from the outside,” said the family member, who is remaining anonymous for fear of further retaliation.
“People shouldn’t be treated like this, like we’re human beings. [It] just makes you feel like we’re back in the days of … Hitler time or, you know, slave times,” the anonymous family member said.
Around 40 people reportedly launched the hunger strike inside the facility in mid-May to protest alleged inhumane treatment. A few days later, an additional 20 additional people detained inside the Desert View Annex, an ICE facility next door, joined the hunger strike, activists said, to demand adequate medical and mental healthcare, nutritious food, bond reform, accountability for deaths in ICE custody, and to shut down the Adelanto ICE facilities.
The alleged retaliation this week reportedly hasn’t stopped some of the hunger strikers from continuing with their protest.
“They try to put fear in us by threatening us with [solitary confinement], taking commissary away, etc. But we [are] all pulling strong and day by day we [are] getting more people on board to peacefully protest from inside the facility,” one anonymous hunger striker said in a message to his family member that was shared with the Southern California News Group.
Rep. Aguilar (D-San Bernardino) said in a statement that he is actively looking into the conditions inside the Adelanto facility and into the status of the three people taken to solitary confinement following the Monday visits with him, Chu and Gomez (D-Los Angeles).
“I was deeply disturbed to hear reports that the detainees I met with on Monday have allegedly been taken from their cells and placed in solitary confinement. These individuals were already starving themselves in an effort to obtain basic medical care and humane treatment. If these reports are true, punishing people for speaking out would be unacceptable,” Rep. Gomez said in a statement.
His office is investigating the allegations of retaliation and will be demanding answers from ICE, he said.