A court-appointed monitor has concluded that California's largest immigrant detention center, the California City Detention Facility in the Mojave Desert, places detainees "at serious risk of both immediate and long-term harm" because it lacks adequate medical care.
Investigation And Method
U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney ordered the inquiry in February after several nonprofit organizations and law firms filed a lawsuit alleging inhumane conditions and systemic medical neglect. Judge Chesney tasked Dr. Muthusamy Anandkumar — a physician who previously served as a medical expert to the Department of Homeland Security — with examining whether the facility provides "constitutionally adequate" care across eight specified categories.
Anandkumar conducted interviews with staff and detained people, performed a three-day site inspection and reviewed patient medical records and operational files supplied by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and CoreCivic, the private company that operates the facility.
Key Findings
"A recurring pattern of delayed identification of patient needs, delayed or missed assessments, delayed or inadequate treatment, missed or delayed medication administration and gaps in follow-up care," the report states, adding that these issues point to systemic failures rather than isolated lapses.
The monitor found the facility provided adequate healthcare in none of the eight categories reviewed. The report cites inadequate staffing, unstable on-site management, insufficient clinical and operational oversight and an ineffective quality assurance process that fails to identify and promptly address care-related problems.
Contributing Factors
When the center opened last year on the site of a former prison, staff said it was intended to house people "in good health." The monitor found, however, that ICE transferred many people with complex medical needs to the facility amid a surge in arrests under the Trump administration. As of mid-July, more than 65,000 people were reported to be in ICE custody — a population shift the report says the facility's medical team was not prepared to manage.
Responses And Next Steps
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said ICE is "regularly audited and inspected by external agencies to ensure that all ICE facilities comply with performance-based national detention standards." CoreCivic said it is reviewing the report and emphasized its commitment to the health and safety of people in its care.
The monitor's findings are notable as the first court-mandated investigation focused on healthcare at an ICE facility. The report could prompt additional oversight, court-ordered remedial action, and closer scrutiny of medical policies and staffing at privately run detention centers.
