Immigrant detentions in Adelanto might end, continue or expand

The city of Adelanto moved this week to sever ties with a controversial immigration detention center that bears the city’s name, but it’s unclear if that means the privately-run facility, which typically holds nearly 2,000 undocumented immigrants, will be shut down or expanded.

Federal immigration officials said Friday that in the wake of the city’s decision, which is expected to take effect in 90 days, they are exploring a range of options, from continuing to use the Adelanto ICE Processing Center  “as long as a viable contract is in effect,” to releasing or transferring some immigrant detainees.

And while officials with the detention center did not comment on the prospect of adding beds at the center, which would allow them to hold more immigrants at the prison-like facility, Adelanto Councilwoman Stevevonna Evans said expansion is a possibility.

“He said he wanted to expand and he can’t do it if the city is involved,” Evans said, referring to George Zoley, owner and chief executive of The GEO Group Inc., which operates the private immigrant facility.

“The center is not shutting down.”

Zoley, reached by phone, declined to comment. He referred questions to others at his company, where an official asked for an e-mail query but did not reply.

The Adelanto facility has has been criticized in numerous reports for a host of problems ranging from inadequate medical and mental health care to poor nutrition. Detainees in Adelanto, some of whom recently held a hunger strike to protest poor conditions, are held while waiting rulings on their immigration status; they are not held as convicted criminals.

The City of Adelanto — which has been getting about $1 million a year from GEO — is the second Southern California community to decide this week that it wants out of the immigrant detention business.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department on Wednesday announced it was calling an early end to a ten-year contract with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency to hold detainees at the Theo Lacy and James A. Musick detention facilities. Sheriff Don Barnes said the decision, which means about 700 detainees will have to be out of Orange County jails within the next 120 days, was made because his agency needs to expand mental health and substance abuse services for the general population in the jails.

The same day that Barnes announced his department’s break with ICE, Adelanto’s City Manager Jessie Flores brought up the issue of the city severing ties with ICE and GEO during a closed session of a city council meeting. No vote was taken but council members were asked for their input.

“I was the only person fighting for this to not be signed,” said Evans. “I am against us not taking responsibility for the detainees in our city. And by us backing out of this contract, that’s what we’re doing. We’ve now lost any chance of having oversight of this facility.”

That closed-session meeting came after an earlier meeting that included the city manager, Mayor Gabriel Reyes, GEO’s Zoley, and Evans. Much of that meeting, Evans said, was spent discussing the potential benefits of pulling out of the contract.

Evans said she and Reyes also were at an earlier meeting two months ago when Zoley spoke of additional property he wanted to expand near the detention center.

“That meeting was not about ‘we need to sever ties. It was a meet and greet,” said Reyes, who also remembers Zoley speaking of building on an additional property.

The decision to end the city’s contract with GEO came from city manager Flores, not the city council, the mayor said.

Flores emailed both GEO and ICE on Wednesday to notify them that the city would terminate its agreement in 90 days.

In an email Friday, Flores said the decision to end the contract was a financial move. Facing “budgetary constraints,” the city cannot provide “adequate contractual oversight” over the facility, as called for by a State Auditor’s report Feb. 26. That report found Adelanto provided “little or no oversight” of the operators that run the detention centers.

The decisions by the Orange County Sheriff and the city of Adelanto follow similar moves in Sacramento and Contra Costa to end their immigrant detentions.

But while immigrant-rights advocates have been pushing for such closures, and for the release of civilian immigrant detainees, some on Friday said they are concerned about the fate of the people now in detention.

Liz Martinez, of the California-based Freedom for Immigrants advocacy group, said ICE officials discussing Adelanto are using language similar to what they said earlier this year when discussing the possible closure of the Mesa Verde Detention Center, another GEO-run facility in Bakersfield. Citing “unusual and compelling urgency,” ICE eventually worked out a one-year contract with GEO to continue running that facility.

“Based on what happened with Mesa Verde, we think that ICE and GEO Group could try to create a loophole and contract directly and continue to operate the facility and potentially expand,” Martinez said.

ICE spokeswoman Lori Haley, said Friday that the agency plans to continue its use of Adelanto, and that if the center becomes unavailable ICE will review the “continued detention and potential transfers” of detainees on a case-by-case basis.

“Ensuring there are sufficient beds available to meet the current demand for detention space is crucial to the success of ICE’s overall mission,” Haley said.