Court order allows Rep. Raul Ruiz access to Adelanto ICE facility

It took a federal court order to allow Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-CA-25) to access the Adelanto Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in less than seven days, he stated in a press release. He described prison-like conditions at the San Bernardino County facility.

After two previous denied attempts, Ruiz entered the Adelanto ICE processing facility in San Bernardino County on February 6 to perform an oversight visit and investigate conditions inside the facility, where over 1,000 people are currently being held. 

“From concrete walls and metal bunks to toilets that lack basic privacy in cells, the environment is designed for punishment, not for humane treatment of individuals awaiting civil proceedings,” Ruiz said in the press release.

Ruiz cited inadequate sleep conditions where detainees are subjected to a “lights on” schedule at 4:00 a.m., giving them only about five hours of sleep, and a lack of privacy where common living areas feature open toilets in small, multi-person cells.

ICE and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have faced many critics over the seven-day policy on congressional access. That policy states members of Congress who want to visit ICE facilities must send a request seven days prior to their visit. 

In a written statement to CALÓ News, Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef) Directing Attorney of Policy and Advocacy Margaret Cargioli wrote, "When members of Congress are blocked from investigating conditions in ICE prisons, human beings suffer and the risk of abuse increases.”

According to sources, Ruiz has been denied access twice in the past. In the most recent visit of the two, he made a request in January, as the policy requires, but was still denied access. 

In an email to CALÓ News, Ruiz said he followed ICE’s seven-day notice policy ahead of his January 28 visit, emailing the agency on January 20 and again on January 26, but never received a response.

When he arrived at the Adelanto facility, Ruiz said ICE agents kept him waiting for more than an hour before connecting him by phone with an official at another location, who told him that access required not only submitting a request but receiving an affirmative response from DHS, which Ruiz said never occurred.

Ruiz argued that the lack of any required response timeline allows DHS to effectively deny access by remaining silent. “Under that logic, even if I had given 30 days’ notice, it wouldn’t have mattered, because they can pick and choose when to reply,” said Ruiz.  

Although some congressional representatives, including Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA-28), Rep. Linda Sánchez (D-CA-39) and Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-CA-29) among others have gained access by following the seven-day notice policy, Ruiz and fellow Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA-33) and Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA-39), both who’ve visited the facility in the past, were denied entrance in January. 

Less than a week later, a federal court order by the U.S. Federal Judge Jia Cobb, made on February 2, would temporarily block ICE from enforcing its seven-day notice policy — amid ongoing litigation in a lawsuit against the agency by thirteen Members of the House of Representatives — and allow Ruiz to revisit the facility and gain access with no prior notice of his visit.   

Ruiz stated in the press release that facility staff didn’t allow him to speak directly with the detainees, but that he will return to the facility.

“I will be back, speaking with those individuals who have loved ones or relatives that are U.S. citizens that live in my district, so I can assess the difference between what they said and what actually happens with the detainees,” said Ruiz. 

CALÓ News attempted to reach the Adelanto ICE facility for comment but did not receive a response.