Dolores Huerta stands with Kern County residents to fight against the largest ICE detention center in California

On Wednesday, civil rights icon Dolores Huerta led a demonstration against the state’s newest and largest proposed immigration detention center, to be located in Kern County.

Earlier this year, the private prison and detention contractor CoreCivic finalized an agreement with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to transform its 2,560-bed facility in California City. Currently, Kern County has two ICE detention facilities, located at the Golden State Annex in McFarland and Mesa Verde in Bakersfield, off Golden State Avenue. 

The L.A. Times reports that CoreCivic had already secured an initial $10 million in federal funding back in April, with the contract allowing for up to $31.2 million over a six-month period, during which the company and ICE will continue negotiating a long-term agreement.

Rosa Lopez, a member of the Rapid Response Network of Kern County, joined the emergency press conference to urge the public to pay attention to the developments of the detention center happening in the city. “Core Civic, which owns this prison behind us, is moving fast and bypassing local and state laws to open the largest immigration detention facility in Kern County and in California,” she said.

California City, located in northern Antelope Valley in Kern County, lies about 100 miles north of Los Angeles and spans roughly 203 square miles. The proposed ICE detention facility sits on a desolate stretch of land roughly six miles from the city center, deep in an area often described as “the middle of nowhere.”

Advocates warn that this isolation could severely limit detainees’ access to legal representation, medical care and family visits, while also reducing transparency and weakening public oversight.

Huerta told CALÓ News that many residents living in California City could possibly be targeted as CoreCivic pushes for the opening of the detention center.

“We know that we're talking about farm workers, landscapers, people who work in hotels, home care workers and people's nannies, you know. This is a really bad picture here for California City, so we don't want this detention center here,” Huerta said. “We want the city council to cancel whatever contracts they signed, as we have a lot of doubt that those contracts are even legal at this point.”

Sarah Rodriguez, a resident of California City, attended the protest to express her disagreement. “I just think it's totally wrong for this to come into our city when not only our kids but also our community needs help,” she said.

Rodriguez then explained to CALÓ News that oftentimes the food in their schools is rotten. “I've seen actual pictures of the rotten food and the rotten milk. I know a lot of kids personally who would rather just throw away the food and not eat it, obviously because they don't want to get sick,” she said.

Huerta said that the city has many health and infrastructure needs. “They don't even have a drugstore here in California City, so let's put that money that would be spent for the detention center and fill the needs of the people of California City and stop this destructive detention center here; we don't need it, we don't want it and the people don't want it,” she said.

Marcela Hernandez, a member of the Detention Watch Network and part of the Dignity Detention Coalition, said that the detention institutions are private corporations that are deadly. She said that this year, more than 13 people have died inside the immigration detention centers.

“This is the highest number that we have seen in past years since detentions expanded in the United States. We have actually done research on what we already all know. If they build it, they have to fill it; if they open it, they have to fill it,” she said. “We're going to have more families separated and more folks being pushed to sign their deportation orders."