From CalMatters (13 November 2025): Seven detainees at an immigration detention center in California City have sued U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, alleging the facility is polluted by sewage leaks, infested with bugs and is denying people access to food, water and their lawyers.
The lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California also claims detainees do not have appropriate clothing for the chilly desert nights, nor appropriate medical attention for life-threatening conditions. The lawsuit alleges detainees with mobility issues don’t have access to wheelchairs, and in some cases are unable to bathe or dress themselves.
The plaintiffs are seeking to make the lawsuit a class action on behalf of all detainees housed at the California City Immigration Processing Center, which is about 75 miles east of Bakersfield and run by the private prison company CoreCivic.
“In their haste to warehouse hundreds of men and women in this isolated facility, defendants have failed to provide for the basic human needs of the people for whose lives and wellbeing they are legally responsible,” the lawsuit alleges.

From KQED (4 November 2025): California’s newest and largest immigration detention center is dangerous for disabled people and others in its care, according to a report this week from a state disability rights watchdog agency. The findings come as CoreCivic, the private prison company that operates the detention facility in the Mojave Desert town of California City, is also being sued for operating without permits. The report, released Monday, is based on an inspection by Disability Rights California. It found that the California City Immigration Processing Center overuses solitary confinement and fails to provide critical medical and mental health care, including prescribed medication and surgeries. The facility, a former state prison, is owned and operated by CoreCivic under contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.