Judge orders US to provide California ICE detainees with medical care, attorneys and blankets

The US government must provide detainees at a California immigration detention center with adequate medical care, access to attorneys, and “temperature-appropriate clothing and blankets”, a federal judge has ruled.

The order came on Tuesday in response to a lawsuit filed by seven people detained at the California City detention facility in November, alleging they had been denied essential medications, sufficient food and sanitary housing conditions.

Residents at the facility had previously described the center as a “torture chamber” and “hell on earth” in interviews with the Guardian.

The US district judge Maxine M Chesney ordered the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to ensure that the facility, which is operated by the private prison corporation CoreCivic, provides “adequate health care staffing” and “timely access to prescribed medications” to those held there, as well as access to attorneys through in-person and telephone meetings, temperature-appropriate clothing and access to outdoor spaces at least one hour per day.

The judge also ordered the government “to provide access to a qualified, independent, third-party monitor” to enable “review of medical records and on-site inspection and interviews with patients and staff”.

“Most of the people held in California City have no criminal record whatsoever, and yet the government treats them worse than the highest-security criminals,” said Cody Harris, a partner at Keker, Van Nest & Peters, the law firm representing the plaintiffs alongside the Prison Law Office and the ACLU National Prison Project.

“We work closely with our government partner to ensure we are providing all required services and meeting applicable standards,” said Ryan Gustin, a spokesperson for CoreCivic.

“Judge Chesney’s order in this case was unnecessary and superfluous given DHS’s medical policy goes above and beyond her nominal ‘order’,” said DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin. “All detainees are provided with proper meals, water, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with their family members and lawyers. All detainees receive full due process. It is a longstanding practice to provide comprehensive medical care from the moment an alien enters ICE custody. This 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.”

The California City detention center, located east of Bakersfield in the Mojave desert, opened in August as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to increase the capacity of ICE detention centers.

The following month, immigrants detained there launched a hunger strike to protest conditions. A month after plaintiffs filed their lawsuit in November, attorneys filed an emergency motion asking that Chesney order ICE to provide emergency medical care to two men detained there. In January, Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, the US senators from California, inspected the facility.

In September, six people detained at the facility shared accounts with the Guardian of poor conditions and alleged mistreatment by staff. They claimed that staff were not consistently giving people daily medications, and some detainees fell unconscious due to health issues; small food portions left people hungry, with some saying they rationed meals.

“This place is built to break us,” Sokhean Keo, a California City detainee who is facing deportation to Cambodia, said in an interview.

The seven people who filed the lawsuit include Yuri Alexander Roque Campos, who says he was denied medications “for days at a time” for a heart anomaly requiring daily monitoring and medication; Fernando Viera Reyes, who said he was denied access to a physician for treatment of his prostate cancer; and Fernando Gomez Ruiz, who said he had not received regular insulin for his diabetes while detained.