Fernando Gomez Ruiz had been eating at a lunch truck outside Home Depot when agents arrested him and about 10 others in early October.
The diabetic father of two, who has lived in the Los Angeles area for 22 years, was detained and then quickly transferred to California’s biggest detention facility, where he’s been unable to get insulin regularly and now nurses a worsening hole in his foot.
He fears now not only being deported, but losing a foot.
Ruiz is one of seven immigrants detained who filed a federal class-action lawsuit in the Northern District of California against the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Wednesday for “inhumane” and “punitive” conditions at California City Detention Facility in the Mojave Desert.
“Conditions in California City are horrific,” said Tess Borden, a lawyer with the Prison Law Office. “The conditions are punishing and they are meant to punish.”
An image used in a class-action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of the interior of the California City Detention Facility in the Mojave Desert.
(American Civil Liberties Union)
“Defendants are failing to provide constitutionally adequate care for the people in the facility,” Borden said. “Mr. Gomez Ruiz is just tragically one such example.”
The complaint details alleged “decrepit” conditions inside California’s newest detention facility, where sewage bubbles up shower drains, insects crawl up and down the walls of cold concrete group cells the size of parking spaces, calls for medical help go unanswered for weeks and people are excessively punished.
Ryan Gustin, a spokesman for CoreCivic, which operates the facility, referred questions to Homeland Security and ICE but said in a statement “the safety, health and well-being of the individuals entrusted to our care is our top priority.
“We take seriously our responsibility to adhere to all applicable federal detention standards in our ICE-contracted facilities, including the [California City facility.] Our immigration facilities are monitored very closely by our government partners at ICE, and they are required to undergo regular review and audit processes to ensure an appropriate standard of living and care for all detainees.”
Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin called allegations of subprime conditions “false” and said this “garbage” contributes to death threats against agents.
She said detained immigrants are provided with “3 meals a day, clean water, clothing, bedding, showers, and toiletries, and access to phones to communicate with their family members and lawyers.”
“ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens,” McLaughlin said in an email. “No one is denied access to proper medical care.”
From the moment someone enters custody, she stated, they are provided with “comprehensive medical care that includes medical, dental, and mental health services as available, and access to medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care.”
“This is the best healthcare than many aliens have received in their entire lives,” she stated.
The lawsuit alleges just the opposite: inadequate food and water, frigid conditions, forced isolation and lack of access to lawyers. It also details instances where life-threatening conditions allegedly weren’t attended to.
An image used in a class-action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of the interior of the California City Detention Facility in the Mojave Desert.
(American Civil Liberties Union)
One of the plaintiffs, Yuri Alexander Roque Campos, didn’t get his needed heart medications. Since arriving there he has had two emergency hospitalizations for severe chest pain. The last time he was there, the doctor told him “he could die if this were to happen again,” according to the lawsuit.
“It is exemplary of the trauma and the heartbreak that people are experiencing inside,” Borden said.
Another plaintiff, Fernando Viera Reyes, had a pending appointment to diagnose and begin treatment for prostate cancer. Reyes is urinating blood and his blood work is abnormal, suggesting his cancer may have metastasized, the complaint alleges. But despite his requests to see a doctor about his condition, he has yet to get testing needed for diagnoses or seen a urologist.
Immigrants at the facility are treated worse than prisoners, even though many detained haven’t committed crimes, the lawsuit alleges.
They are kept for hours on end in “parking space”-size cells. It’s frigid and when immigrants complain about the cold, instead of providing sweatshirts, they are directed to the commissary where sweatshirts and sweatpants cost around $20 each. Those pieces of clothing were free when the facility was a state prison.
According to the lawsuit, at least three people have attempted suicide inside the California City center. On one of those occasions, detainees screamed for help. One immigrant stepped out of his cell to see what was going on. He and his cellmate were met by a staff member who had been doing maintenance and had a drill in his hand. Get your “a— inside the cell” or “I can make a whole in your chest,” the staff member ordered, according to the complaint.
The individual who stepped out of the cell was given a disciplinary write-up, the complaint states.
The lawsuit was brought by the Prison Law Office, the American Civil Liberties Union, the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice and Keker, Van Nest & Peters.
The former prison opened in August as the Trump administration pushed to expand detention capacity nationwide, despite failing to pass a July fire inspection.
At the time, the city manager warned CoreCivic “that the building is unsafe and violates the fire code because its construction prevents radio signals from transmitting from key areas,” the lawsuit points out.
By the next month, immigrants inside the 2,500-capacity facility launched a hunger strike protesting conditions. There are about 800 detainees at the facility now, according to lawyers.
Borden said that when the facility was a state prison, individuals with significant medical needs were not allowed to be housed there.
The lawsuit points to a report from earlier this month from Disability Rights California. The group is authorized under federal and state law to monitor the facility and received “numerous distressing” reports that people with disabilities were experiencing poor medical care.
The group found that the facility didn’t provide critical medical and mental healthcare or meet people’s basic needs, including adequate water and food. It determined staff used solitary confinement “unnecessarily” and employed staffers who harassed detainees.
