Conditions in California’s immigration detention centers have worsened under Trump
A new report by the California Department of Justice has found that conditions in the state’s immigration detention facilities are worsening as increased incarceration under the Trump administration’s deportation drive has led to overcrowding and a lack of adequate health care.
In a report, released Friday, California Department of Justice staff, along with correctional and health care experts, visited all seven facilities that existed in 2025 (the eighth facility, the Central Valley Annex in McFarland, began receiving inmates in April). The team analyzed internal documents and detainees’ records, interviewed detained workers and 194 prisoners.
“Trump’s mass deportation campaign has led to an alarming increase in incarceration – and institutions were not ready to meet this new demand,” said Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta in a statement. “During its inspection, my team found evidence of inadequate medical care and heard many reports of disturbing, unsafe and unsanitary conditions and a lack of basic necessities.”
Bonta was scheduled to discuss the report’s findings at a press conference on Friday morning.
The audit came about because California enacted legislation during the first Trump administration that requires statewide monitoring and public reports detailing the conditions of immigration detention facilities. This is the fifth report issued by the California Department of Justice since 2019.
Such reports are particularly important as the Trump administration has scaled back the Department of Homeland Security’s surveillance measures; for example, it has outsourced staff to the offices of the Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and the Immigrant Detention Ombudsman.
According to the report, California’s prison population grew by 162%, from 2,300 to more than 6,000 inmates, between the 2023 and 2025 visits. Most of the detainees had no criminal history and were considered low security.
Combined, the facilities have the capacity to hold approximately 8,200 inmates. Six people have died in ICE custody in California since early 2025.
Inspectors found that staffing levels have failed to keep up with the growing number of inmates, particularly in the California City and Adelanto areas. The Trump administration has limited access to the bond, including for vulnerable people, such as pregnant women and people with serious medical conditions.
The intake process for new inmates, including medical and mental health screenings, must take place within 12 hours of their arrival. But detainees at many facilities reported waiting days or weeks before being segregated, given housing and medical checks, the report said. While they were waiting, some slept on the ground without access to water and other basic necessities.
At the Adelanto facility, inmates said water coolers sat empty for hours. Justice Department staff saw contaminated drinking water coming out of a faucet in the women’s housing unit.
At the Golden State Annex in McFarland and the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center in Bakersfield, inmates said they spend at least $50 a week on commissary supplies so they don’t go hungry. Across most facilities, inmates reported improperly prepared food, lack of food or allergy facilities and irregular meal times.
Inmates at all facilities reported delays in treatment, including emergency care, which led to problems that could have been avoided. For example, in Mesa Verde, the report states that “delays in medical care, including specialty care and referrals, were widespread and appeared to result from delays in authorization by the ICE Health Service Corps and cancellations or reductions in referrals due to referrals between facilities.”
Basic needs are also a problem, according to the report. At the California City facility, inmates said they were so cold that they cut the ends of socks to make improvised sleeves and covered the air spaces in their cells with paper.
According to the report, Otay Mesa is the only correctional facility in California that has a policy requiring inmates to be strip-searched after being visited by anyone other than their attorney. Prisoners there have long said that this practice is degrading and offensive.
A state law requiring detention center inspections expires next year. The bill of Sen. María Elena Durazo (D-Los Angeles) will make the test permanent. Another federal bill, by Sen. Steve Padilla (D-San Diego), would prevent the overstocking of products sold at commissaries of detention centers, where many items are sold at inflated prices.
