Rep. Robert Garcia and a delegation of California Democrats planned an oversight visit to the Adelanto ICE Processing Center on Friday, after a federal court ruled in July that the facility likely violates detainees' constitutional rights. The planned visit comes amid mounting reports that the government has failed to fix the very conditions a judge ordered corrected months ago, including persistent mold, limited outdoor time and gaps in access to clean water.
The facility has drawn scrutiny for years, but the latest wave of findings is especially stark. According to the Los Angeles Times, a federal judge ordered the government to provide 24-hour access to clean drinking water, nutritious and sanitary meals, proper medical care, adequate sanitation including mold remediation, and at least four hours of daily outdoor time. A court monitor, Kellie Wasko, later found the government remained largely out of compliance with that order.
Wasko's inspection turned up mold in every general-population shower room in the facility's West building, along with larvae on the floors, the Times reports. The same report notes that 1,708 detainees in the East and West buildings had access to clean drinking water and hygiene products, even as water-filtration problems persisted elsewhere in the facility.
Monitor Finds Government Still Failing Court Order
The scope of the shortfall is laid out in a separate accounting: Wasko found Adelanto had not complied with 10 of the 19 areas Judge Sykes ordered improved, spanning meals, bedding, outdoor recreation, family visitation and mold removal, according to the San Bernardino Sun. ICE has pushed back hard against that characterization. In a statement cited by the outlet, the agency said, “Any claim that there are subprime conditions at Adelanto ICE Processing Center are FALSE,” adding that detainees receive meals, water, medical treatment and opportunities to communicate.
Advocates for detainees describe a starker reality on the ground. Outdoor time remains limited to one hour a day instead of the four hours required by the injunction, according to a press release from Public Counsel. The same release states that detained individuals reported going three to seven hours without drinking water, and that one man collapsed in mid-September and was hospitalized for severe dehydration.
Deaths and Medical Care Under Scrutiny
The push for oversight is unfolding against a backdrop of detainee deaths connected to the facility, though exact tallies differ across sources. Public Counsel's release states that at least four people have died in ICE custody while detained at Adelanto since September 2025. The Sun, citing a 2026 California Attorney General report, puts the figure at at least five deaths after detention at Adelanto during the second Trump administration, with four of those deaths connected to substandard medical care. A separate Attorney General document describes six deaths of detained individuals between September 2025 and March 2026 across two facilities, four at Adelanto and two at the Imperial Regional Detention Center, though that figure carries lower confidence than the others.
One of those cases has drawn particular attention. An ICE mortality review found that medical care provided to Ismael Ayala-Uribe at Adelanto deviated beyond safe limits of practice, the Sun reported. The publication's review of ICE death reports nationwide found at least 27 detained people died after medical-care failings in detention, part of a broader pattern the Times has also tracked: internal reports examining the deaths of 33 people in ICE custody from September 2019 through January 2026.
A Pattern of Lawmaker Visits, Not Always Welcomed
Friday's planned visit is not the first time members of Congress have tried to get eyes inside Adelanto. Reps. Judy Chu, Pete Aguilar and Jimmy Gomez visited Adelanto in June to meet with detainees participating in a hunger strike and assess conditions inside, according to a release from Rep. Chu's office.
Not every attempt has gone smoothly. In June 2025, Reps. Gilbert R. Cisneros Jr., Judy Chu and Derek Tran were denied entry during an unannounced oversight visit to Adelanto, finding locked gates and unreturned calls to staff, according to High Desert News Online, which also noted that human rights organizations have repeatedly flagged Adelanto for overcrowding, substandard medical care and restrictions on lawyer and family visits over the past decade.
The facility's reported population has also varied across accounts, with figures including 1,708, nearly 1,800 and nearly 2,000 people held there at different points, underscoring how fluid conditions at Adelanto have remained even as court oversight continues. As KESQ reported, Garcia's delegation planned a Friday visit to examine those conditions firsthand. The planned visit would add another chapter to a now-recurring standoff between California lawmakers and the facility's operators over what is actually happening inside its walls.
