ICE considers closing contentious detention facility in Adelanto

The Department of Homeland Security will consider closing the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, three years after a federal judge ordered the controversial detention facility to reduce its population to stem a COVID-19 outbreak.

"While no final decision has been made regarding the disposition of the facility, ICE must consider the effect of ongoing litigation that prevents full use of the facility, likelihood of relief from that litigation, the cost associated with maintaining the facility, and the operational requirements for effective national detention operations," ICE spokesperson Jenny Burke said in a statement. 

In 2020, 81 of the 784 detainees at the facility tested positive for COVID-19, nine of whom needed hospitalization, sparking outrage from the ACLU. 

"We have argued for months that the government's response to COVID-19 was putting the lives of immigrants held there at great risk,'' Jessica Bansal, senior staff attorney at the ACLU SoCal said in 2020. "We urge all actors -- including the federal government, the state of California, and the federal courts -- to take the steps needed to protect these individuals from this deadly disease.''

United States District Judge Terry Hatter ordered the facility to reduce its population after the outbreak spread to four different housing units. This order has not been lifted in the past three years. It is the only facility that has paused housing new detainees, according to Congressman Jay Obernolte. 

As of October 2023, only eight detainees remain at the facility, the congressman said. The processing center can house 1,940 people. 

Even more perplexing is the fact that the COVID-19 national emergency, the primary justification used to limit the intake of new detainees at the Adelanto facility, was declared ended by President Joe Biden on May 11," Obernolte wrote in October.

ICE has issued a 60-day task order to let the government and private contractors figure out accommodations for personnel, operations, and those in custody. A task order is an agreement between a contractor and the government.

"As part of routine strategic operational planning, Enforcement and Removal Operations continually assesses various factors when contemplating changes to the national facility system. Discussions with detention providers are critical to ICE's custody management mission and occur on a regular basis," Burke said in a statement.