A Honduran man who lived and worked in the U.S. for 26 years died after being held at a California immigration detention facility for more than a month, and his family is calling for an investigation, saying he complained of deteriorating health conditions before his death.
Luis Beltrán Yanez-Cruz, 68, died on Jan. 6 at 1:18 a.m. at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Indio after suffering from heart-related health issues, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. He was being held at the Imperial Regional Detention Facility in Calexico before he was transferred to the hospital.
Federal officials said Yanez-Cruz was “encountered” during a Nov. 16 enforcement operation in Newark, N.J., but he was not the target of the operation, his daughter said. He was put into removal proceedings, which were pending at the time of his death.
A photo of Luis Beltrán Yanez-Cruz, 68, is displayed during his memorial. Yanez-Cruz died this month in ICE custody.
His daughter, Josselyn Yanez, blames ICE for not taking his health concerns seriously and not providing medical attention as his health deteriorated. In a statement, ICE said Yanez-Cruz was put in the detention facility’s medical unit for chest pains before being sent to El Centro Regional Medical Center. He was then transported by helicopter to Indio.
“There needs to be an investigation because this is not normal,” Yanez said. “He started having symptoms weeks ago; they could have done something.”
In response to the family’s claims, a Homeland Security official said in a statement, “ICE has higher detention standards than most US prisons that hold actual US citizens. All detainees are provided with 3 meals a day, clean water, clothing, bedding, showers, and toiletries, and have access to phones to communicate with their family members and lawyers.”
Luis Beltrán Yanez-Cruz was being held at the Imperial Regional Detention Facility in Calexico before being hospitalized in Indio.
(Google Maps)
Last September another detainee at the facility died after experiencing a seizure at the facility, ICE officials said.
As for Yanez-Cruz, officials said he illegally entered the U.S. and was arrested near Eagle Pass, Texas, in June 1993 and removed from the U.S. Between 1999 and 2012, the agency said, he submitted applications for temporary protected status but was denied.
Yanez said claims that her father was deported and never granted TPS are false. She said her father had been granted TPS when he entered the U.S. in 1999, and it allowed him to visit Honduras on at least two occasions. His status lapsed because he was unable to renew it, she said.
On Nov. 16 her father, who worked in construction, had gotten breakfast around 10 a.m. at a McDonald’s in Newark when he stopped to chat with friends in an area known for day laborers to gather and pick up work, she told The Times. Suddenly, ICE agents pulled up and began arresting people, including her father.
Yanez, who lives in Houston, said she learned of it about an hour later. Her father was in detention in New Jersey before being moved to Calexico. He spent Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s in detention.
Members of Todec Legal Center attend a memorial for Luis Beltrán Yanez-Cruz, who was from New Jersey and died far from home without any family by his side. “Although we did not know el señor Luis, his death being in our backyard, it’s so close to us,” a member of the immigrant rights group said. “It’s one pain after another. We did not know him, but his family’s pain is our pain.”
Yanez-Cruz spent 26 years in the U.S., working construction and paint jobs to help his family get ahead, Yanez said.
“He was an extraordinary father,” she said. “He was always looking out for us, even as we got older and became adults. He looked out for his grandchildren … He always worried about them and called to ask how they were doing.”
He called regularly, even while he was detained, Yanez said. But his health appeared to worsen the longer he was in detention, she said, even though he had been healthy before his arrest.
Inside the facility he was suffering from stomach and chest pains and sometimes felt like vomiting when he ate, she said. He suffered from shortness of breath walking around the facility and when he reported it to the staff, they only gave him pills to ease the pain, she said.
Yanez said the last time she spoke to her father was Jan. 3, a usual check-in when he asked about her children as she walked home from work. At the end of the call he said “Cuidate, te amo mucho.” Take care, I love you a lot.
Her brother spoke to him the next day and he seemed fine, she said. But as she waited for his call the following day she received one from a former detainee who told her he heard her father had been transferred to the medical unit after he had difficulty breathing. Yanez said she tried to call the facility but couldn’t get information until the next day when they called to tell her he died during the early morning hours.
Parish staff and members of Todec Legal Center lead a procession after the memorial service.
Yanez-Cruz’s passing hit family members hard because they were not there in his final moments, his daughter said. They have been sharing stories of his life and the sacrifices he made for them.
Her father, she said, departed Honduras in 1999 after Hurricane Mitch devastated the country and left him, like millions of others, struggling in the aftermath. He traveled north to the U.S. to help his family, Yanez said, and continued to work hard. He made friends easily, she said, and when he died she received calls from people who met him and shared kind words.
Luz Gallegos, executive director of Todec Legal Center, an immigrant rights group based in the Coachella Valley, said her group learned about Yanez-Cruz’s story after he died at the hospital in nearby Indio. On Friday the legal center helped organize a memorial mass in honor of Yanez-Cruz at the Our Lady of Soledad Catholic Church, to honor Yanez-Cruz and others who died in custody, Gallegos said.
“Although we did not know el señor Luis, his death being in our backyard, it’s so close to us,” she said. “It’s one pain after another. We did not know him, but his family’s pain is our pain.”
A thunderous explosion at a nursing home just outside Philadelphia killed at least two people, collapsed part of the building, sent flames shooting out and left people trapped inside, authorities said.Video above: Neighbor describes sound of nursing home explosionPennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said in a news conference several hours after the explosion that at least two had been killed.The explosion happened at Bristol Health & Rehab Center in Bristol Township, just as a utility crew had been on site looking for a gas leak, although the cause of the explosion was unclear several hours later, as was the extent of the casualties.A plume of black smoke rose from the nursing home, as emergency responders, fire trucks and ambulances from across the region rushed there, joined by earthmoving equipment.Police Lt. Sean Cosgrove said he didn’t know if anyone was missing, and that residents had been evacuated by emergency responders, bystanders and staff.“A lot of the details at this point are still unknown,” he told reporters at the scene.Bucks County emergency management officials said they received the report of an explosion at approximately 2:17 p.m. and said a portion of the building was reported to have collapsed. Ruth Miller, a Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency spokesperson, said her agency had been informed that people were trapped inside.Willie Tye, who lives about a block away, said he was sitting at home watching a basketball game on TV when he heard a “loud kaboom.”“I thought an airplane or something came and fell on my house,” Tye said.He got up to go look and saw “fire everywhere” and people escaping the building. The explosion looked like it happened in the kitchen area of the nursing home, he said. Tye said some of the people who live or work there didn’t make it out.“Just got to keep praying for them,” Tye said.The cause of the explosion was unclear.The local gas utility, PECO, said its crews had responded to reports of a gas odor at the nursing home shortly after 2 p.m.“While crews were on site, an explosion occurred at the facility. PECO crews shut off natural gas and electric service to the facility to ensure the safety of first responders and local residents,” the utility said in a statement.Nils Hagen-Frederiksen, press secretary at the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, said investigators from the safety division were headed to the scene.Hagen-Frederiksen said first responders and emergency management officials were describing it as a gas explosion, but that won’t be confirmed until his agency can examine the scene up close.Musuline Watson, who said she was a certified nursing assistant the facility, told WPVI-TV that over the weekend, she and others there smelled gas, but “there was no heat in the room, so we didn’t take it to be anything.”The nursing home is about 20 miles northeast of Philadelphia. Its owner, Saber Healthcare Group, said it was working with local emergency authorities. The facility had been known until recently as Silver Lake Healthcare Center.Jim Morgan, president of the Bristol Township School Board, said district buses would take people from the nursing home to a reunification center at Truman High School. He said officials were working on setting up beds and providing water and other needs to residents.“This is just something that is sad for everybody and the families and the workers that are there,” Davis said.According to Medicare.gov, the 174-bed facility underwent a standard fire safety inspection in September 2024, during which no citations were issued. But Medicare’s overall rating of the facility is listed as “much below average,” with poor ratings for health inspections in particular.
BRISTOL, Pa. (Video above: WPVI via CNN Newsource) —
A thunderous explosion at a nursing home just outside Philadelphia killed at least two people, collapsed part of the building, sent flames shooting out and left people trapped inside, authorities said.
Video above: Neighbor describes sound of nursing home explosion
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said in a news conference several hours after the explosion that at least two had been killed.
The explosion happened at Bristol Health & Rehab Center in Bristol Township, just as a utility crew had been on site looking for a gas leak, although the cause of the explosion was unclear several hours later, as was the extent of the casualties.
A plume of black smoke rose from the nursing home, as emergency responders, fire trucks and ambulances from across the region rushed there, joined by earthmoving equipment.
Police Lt. Sean Cosgrove said he didn’t know if anyone was missing, and that residents had been evacuated by emergency responders, bystanders and staff.
“A lot of the details at this point are still unknown,” he told reporters at the scene.
Bucks County emergency management officials said they received the report of an explosion at approximately 2:17 p.m. and said a portion of the building was reported to have collapsed. Ruth Miller, a Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency spokesperson, said her agency had been informed that people were trapped inside.
Willie Tye, who lives about a block away, said he was sitting at home watching a basketball game on TV when he heard a “loud kaboom.”
“I thought an airplane or something came and fell on my house,” Tye said.
He got up to go look and saw “fire everywhere” and people escaping the building. The explosion looked like it happened in the kitchen area of the nursing home, he said. Tye said some of the people who live or work there didn’t make it out.
“Just got to keep praying for them,” Tye said.
The cause of the explosion was unclear.
The local gas utility, PECO, said its crews had responded to reports of a gas odor at the nursing home shortly after 2 p.m.
“While crews were on site, an explosion occurred at the facility. PECO crews shut off natural gas and electric service to the facility to ensure the safety of first responders and local residents,” the utility said in a statement.
Nils Hagen-Frederiksen, press secretary at the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, said investigators from the safety division were headed to the scene.
Hagen-Frederiksen said first responders and emergency management officials were describing it as a gas explosion, but that won’t be confirmed until his agency can examine the scene up close.
Musuline Watson, who said she was a certified nursing assistant the facility, told WPVI-TV that over the weekend, she and others there smelled gas, but “there was no heat in the room, so we didn’t take it to be anything.”
The nursing home is about 20 miles northeast of Philadelphia. Its owner, Saber Healthcare Group, said it was working with local emergency authorities. The facility had been known until recently as Silver Lake Healthcare Center.
Jim Morgan, president of the Bristol Township School Board, said district buses would take people from the nursing home to a reunification center at Truman High School. He said officials were working on setting up beds and providing water and other needs to residents.
“This is just something that is sad for everybody and the families and the workers that are there,” Davis said.
According to Medicare.gov, the 174-bed facility underwent a standard fire safety inspection in September 2024, during which no citations were issued. But Medicare’s overall rating of the facility is listed as “much below average,” with poor ratings for health inspections in particular.
Three inmates who escaped from a jail east of Atlanta, including one who was being held on a murder charge, used jail phones to call friends on the outside who met them and arranged a Lyft ride to whisk them out of Georgia, authorities said Tuesday.The inmates, who were captured in South Florida, were able to “compromise” a portion of a cell inside the DeKalb County Jail to make their escape, said DeKalb County Chief Deputy Temetris Atkins. He didn’t provide more specifics because jailers don’t want other inmates to know the facility’s weaknesses.“We repaired the area that was compromised, and we’re looking at other areas that are similar to that to fortify them to make sure that they are not compromised in the same manner,” Atkins said at a Tuesday news conference.DeKalb County Sheriff Melody Maddox described the jail as an “aging facility that’s deteriorating right before our eyes.” The jail is in Decatur, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) east of downtown Atlanta.The escape was discovered early Monday during a routine security check, authorities said. All three inmates were captured in Florida, said Eric Heinze, assistant chief inspector with the U.S. Marshals Service Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force.After jailers realized the three were gone, investigators listened to recordings of conversations they’d had on recorded phone lines. They learned that one of the inmates had contacted people on the outside who helped them evade capture after the escape, U.S. Marshal Thomas Brown said.The inmates were picked up by an unnamed man and taken to one of their girlfriends’ homes, Brown said. Then, a Lyft ride was arranged to transport them to an address in Florida, he said.“As you can imagine, the Lyft driver is very traumatized by this,” Brown said.The inmates range in age from 24 to 31, with the youngest one charged with murder and armed robbery. The other two inmates face charges that include armed robbery and arson.The sheriff’s office had warned that the men might be armed and were considered dangerous after their escape.The inmate accused of murder and armed robbery, Stevenson Charles, 24, has had several run-ins with law officers in Georgia and Florida. He had been sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to multiple counts of kidnapping and bank robbery, a federal agent wrote in a Monday affidavit regarding the recent jail escape.After being sentenced, the agent wrote, Charles was turned over to DeKalb County authorities on Dec. 5 to face the murder charge, details of which were not immediately available. A federal criminal complaint charging him with the escape does not list an attorney who could be contacted to comment on his behalf, and it wasn’t clear whether he has one at this early stage of the case.In one of multiple cases involving Charles in South Florida, he is accused of meeting a man through the Grindr online dating application and then pulling a gun on him when they met in person at a Miami residence in 2022. Charles then drove the man to various Miami area banks, withdrawing money from the victim’s accounts, court records show.
Three inmates who escaped from a jail east of Atlanta, including one who was being held on a murder charge, used jail phones to call friends on the outside who met them and arranged a Lyft ride to whisk them out of Georgia, authorities said Tuesday.
The inmates, who were captured in South Florida, were able to “compromise” a portion of a cell inside the DeKalb County Jail to make their escape, said DeKalb County Chief Deputy Temetris Atkins. He didn’t provide more specifics because jailers don’t want other inmates to know the facility’s weaknesses.
“We repaired the area that was compromised, and we’re looking at other areas that are similar to that to fortify them to make sure that they are not compromised in the same manner,” Atkins said at a Tuesday news conference.
DeKalb County Sheriff Melody Maddox described the jail as an “aging facility that’s deteriorating right before our eyes.” The jail is in Decatur, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) east of downtown Atlanta.
The escape was discovered early Monday during a routine security check, authorities said. All three inmates were captured in Florida, said Eric Heinze, assistant chief inspector with the U.S. Marshals Service Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force.
After jailers realized the three were gone, investigators listened to recordings of conversations they’d had on recorded phone lines. They learned that one of the inmates had contacted people on the outside who helped them evade capture after the escape, U.S. Marshal Thomas Brown said.
The inmates were picked up by an unnamed man and taken to one of their girlfriends’ homes, Brown said. Then, a Lyft ride was arranged to transport them to an address in Florida, he said.
“As you can imagine, the Lyft driver is very traumatized by this,” Brown said.
The inmates range in age from 24 to 31, with the youngest one charged with murder and armed robbery. The other two inmates face charges that include armed robbery and arson.
The sheriff’s office had warned that the men might be armed and were considered dangerous after their escape.
The inmate accused of murder and armed robbery, Stevenson Charles, 24, has had several run-ins with law officers in Georgia and Florida. He had been sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to multiple counts of kidnapping and bank robbery, a federal agent wrote in a Monday affidavit regarding the recent jail escape.
After being sentenced, the agent wrote, Charles was turned over to DeKalb County authorities on Dec. 5 to face the murder charge, details of which were not immediately available. A federal criminal complaint charging him with the escape does not list an attorney who could be contacted to comment on his behalf, and it wasn’t clear whether he has one at this early stage of the case.
In one of multiple cases involving Charles in South Florida, he is accused of meeting a man through the Grindr online dating application and then pulling a gun on him when they met in person at a Miami residence in 2022. Charles then drove the man to various Miami area banks, withdrawing money from the victim’s accounts, court records show.
The Trump administration is moving to dismantle one of the world’s leading climate and weather research institutions, the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., in a decision experts say will undermine U.S. scientific competitiveness and leave millions vulnerable to worsening climate hazards.
Russell Vought, director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, made the surprise announcement in a Tuesday evening post on X.
“This facility is one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country,” Vought wrote. “A comprehensive review is underway & any vital activities such as weather research will be moved to another entity or location.”
The news sent shock waves through the scientific community. The center’s work is used by governments, universities, emergency planners and the private sector for forecasts and disaster response planning. Its sophisticated Community Earth System Model underpins international climate assessments and much of U.S. policy. The federally funded research center employs about 830 staff members, making it one of the largest consortia of scientists who study weather, climate and Earth systems using advanced models and supercomputers in the world.
“The Trump administration has put a bull’s-eye on one of the United States’ premier weather and climate research and modeling centers, threatening to destroy decades of public investment,” said Carlos Martinez, a former researcher at the center, now a senior climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “Deliberately dismantling an institution so central to weather forecasting and climate change prediction would not only undermine scientific research, it would leave people across the nation less prepared for the dangers of a warming world.”
A senior White House official confirmed the plan to The Times, saying the National Science Foundation, which funds the center, will be breaking up the facility to “eliminate Green New Scam research activities.” As the largest federal research program on climate change, the center serves as the “premier research stronghold for left-wing climate lunacy,” the official said.
Officials with the National Science Foundation on Wednesday said the agency is “reviewing the structure of the research and observational capabilities” at the center, and is exploring options to transfer stewardship of its Wyoming Supercomputing Center to “an appropriate operator.” The agency also is looking to divest two aircraft managed by the center and to “redefine the scope” of modeling and forecasting research and operations.
“NSF remains committed to providing world-class infrastructure for weather modeling, space weather research and forecasting and other critical functions,” the agency said. “To do so, NSF will be engaging with partner agencies, the research community, and other interested parties to solicit feedback for rescoping the functions of the work currently performed by NCAR.”
Although the White House official characterized the center’s work as “climate lunacy,” changes in the climate are coming faster than many scientists predicted. The basic science of climate change has been well-established through decades of research.
Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, said it is hard to overstate the importance of the center. “There is no other institution like NCAR — not just in this country but really anywhere else in the world,” Swain said during a briefing Wednesday morning. He feared that no other global institution can absorb the entirety of its expertise.
Swain also described the administration’s decision as “nakedly politically partisan” in a manner that does not align with public interest. The center’s predictions “aren’t just helpful or convenient — they are life-saving and economy-saving,” he said, adding that shuttering the facility would be “an unbelievable, really genuinely shocking self-inflicted wound to American competitiveness.”
Indeed, the loss of the facility would leave millions of people vulnerable to worsening climate hazards such as wildfires, hurricanes, tropical cyclones and winter storms, Swain and other experts said. Its Wyoming Supercomputing Center provides massive computational resources to national and international scientists for running complex weather and climate models and simulations.
In California, many universities and state agencies use data and modeling from the center for air pollution monitoring, managing water, emergency planning and wildfire risk assessment, among many other uses.
Data and tools from the center also are used directly and indirectly by the private sector.
The aviation, energy and private weather forecasting industries all rely on data and tools developed by the center, including a technology product known as BoltAlert, which is used to predict lightning strikes, and the Maintenance Decision Support System, which alerts snowplow and truck fleets about road conditions.
The $700-billion reinsurance industry also relies on the center’s data, tools and climate models to create financial instruments, such as catastrophe bonds, that are directly tied to weather or natural disaster risks. Such vehicles are dependent upon thorough and precise past data, as well as climate models for forecasting potential risk.
For instance, the reinsurance giant SwissRe credits the work of the center in the development of its proprietary forecasting tool known as the CatNet. In a press statement about the product, the company said its catastrophe experts partnered with the center to create globally validated hail predictions.
Franklin Nutter, spokesman and former president of the Reinsurance Assn. of America — a reinsurance trade group — said his understanding is that NCAR will be broken up and directed to focus on “weather.”
“It is unclear what this means for climate research,” Nutter said in an email. “NCAR has been the world’s leading research hub” in part because of its super computing capabilities, which allow it to analyze weather over time, i.e. the climate.
He said a recent study of 40 years of Midwest hail patterns show that patterns have changed — in frequency, severity and geography. The insurance sector and local and state governments use this information to assess changing risk patterns. He said the center also has “studied the dynamics of wildfires to understand development patterns and intensity.”
The center also provides real time weather data which the insurance, reinsurance and investment sector uses to determine whether a catastrophe bond gets paid out.
“Perhaps most importantly, NCAR is needed to bring together the critical resources [super computing and talent] to provide research and weather-related innovation that provides federal, state and local governments with insights about preparedness and response,” he said, noting that the center’s funding comes from not just the National Science Foundation but also the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy and the Federal Aviation Administration.
“Maintaining the U.S. leadership role, developing talent in the natural sciences and innovation has been a hallmark of NCAR,” he said. His trade group “believes it should be maintained and additional resources provided to it.”
The decision to close the facility follows other efforts from the Trump administration to shut down scientific research and change the public view of climate change. That includes laying off hundreds of staffers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric administration and slashing funding for its scientific research arm. The Trump administration also fired hundreds of scientists working to prepare the congressionally mandated National Climate Assessment and removed the website that housed previous assessments.
The announcement came as a surprise to Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, who said in a statement shortly after Vought’s announcement that the state had “yet to receive information” about the plan.
“If true, public safety is at risk and science is being attacked,” Polis said. “Climate change is real, but the work of NCAR goes far beyond climate science. NCAR delivers data around severe weather events like fires and floods that help our country save lives and property, and prevent devastation for families. If these cuts move forward, we will lose our competitive advantage against foreign powers and adversaries in the pursuit of scientific discovery.”
When asked why the administration is closing the facility, White House officials pointed to so-called “woke” programs at the center that they said “waste taxpayer funds” and “veer from strong or useful science,” such as its Rising Voices Center aimed at joining Indigenous knowledge and Earth science, and an art series that explored the human relationship with water.
They also cited the center’s research into wind turbines that sought to better understand the impact of weather conditions on offshore wind production. Trump has been vocal about his opposition to offshore wind and other forms of renewable energy.
An Amazon warehouse near the gates of Los Angeles International Airport has sold for a record price as logistics centers near transportation hubs grow in value.
The real estate investment arm of global financial services firm Morgan Stanley recently paid $211 million for the distribution center on 98th Street amid several private long-term parking structures that serve LAX.
It was the biggest industrial real estate deal of the year in greater Los Angeles, according to real estate data provider CoStar.
The distribution center was built earlier this year to serve Amazon, which occupies the entire 143,060-square-foot facility in what CoStar said is “one of the most in-demand industrial corridors in the country. “
With industrial property vacancy near historic lows in the region and a shortage of land around LAX, investors continue to crowd into the few modern developments that come online, said Jesse Gundersheim, a senior analyst at CoStar.
Having a prominent tenant in place made the distribution center even more desirable, he said.
“The rise of e-commerce has fundamentally increased demand for well-located, modern logistics assets, which we believe are critical infrastructure for today’s economy and offer strong, long-term growth,” said Will Milam, head of U.S. Investments at Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing.
The seller was Overton Moore Properties, which paid $115 million for the site in 2020 before redeveloping it for Amazon. Torrance-based Overton Moore develops and operates logistics properties in the Western U.S.
Morgan Stanley manages $53 billion in gross real estate assets worldwide and has been building a foothold in industrial hubs near major ports and transportation links.
“We are pleased to acquire this facility in a highly strategic distribution location, underscoring our continued strategy of securing key net lease investments in core logistics markets,” said David Gross, managing director at Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing.
“This facility in particular is a critical asset for distribution and logistics needs in a significant region of Southern California where both a lack of space and regulatory hurdles present development constraints,” he said
Industrial sales volume is up 4% year over year in Los Angeles, as capital costs have come down, driven by lower interest rates, Gundershiem said.
The year-to-date deal count has topped 800 transactions, surpassing the full-year totals of the past two years, with sales volume above $5 billion.
Institutional investors such as Morgan Stanley have been responsible for about one-third of the acquisition volume in Los Angeles this year, Gundersheim said.
Crumbling infrastructure has forced the closure of a low-security prison in San Pedro that has housed a host of infamous inmates over the years including Al Capone and Charles Manson, the Federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed this week.
Conditions at the Federal Correctional Institution Terminal Island, which houses nearly 1,000 inmates, have been a years-long problem. An assessment conducted last year by an architectural and engineering firm identified more than $110 million in critical repairs needed at the prison over the next 20 years. The prison is currently home to disgraced celebrity lawyer Michael Avenatti and former cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried.
More recently, officials discovered problems involving the support structure of the steam system used for heating the facility, which “prompted immediate action,” including the relocation of inmates, said Donald Murphy, a spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
“We take seriously our responsibility to safeguard the inmates in our care, our staff, and the broader community. Once we have assessed the situation further and ensured the safety of all those involved, we will determine the next steps for FCI Terminal Island,” Murphy said.
Entrance to the Federal Correctional Institution Terminal Island.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
The prison, which opened in 1938, is the latest federal correctional facility to close over the past year amid serious budgetary and operational challenges, including severe staffing shortages, lack of funding to repair aging infrastructure, sexual assault of inmates and contraband across the prison system.
It is not clear how long the Terminal Island facility will be closed. Inmates will be moved to other facilities, though officials did not specify where, saying only that the agency is prioritizing keeping people “as close as possible to their anticipated release locations.”
Federal Bureau of Prison Director William K. Marshall III cited problems with underground tunnels containing the facility’s steam heating system in a memo to staff on Tuesday obtained by the Associated Press.
Ceilings in the tunnels have begun to deteriorate, causing chunks of concrete to fall and putting employees and the heating system at risk, he said.
“We are not going to wait for a crisis,” Marshall told employees. “We are not going to gamble with lives. And we are not going to expect people to work or live in conditions that we would never accept for ourselves.”
This isn’t the first time the prison has faced critical infrastructure problems.
Fernando Gomez Ruiz had been eating at a lunch truck outside Home Depot when agents arrested him and 10 others in early October.
The diabetic father of two, who has lived in the Los Angeles area for 22 years, was detained and then quickly transferred to California’s biggest detention facility, where he’s been unable to get insulin regularly and now nurses a worsening hole in his foot.
He fears now not only being deported, but losing a foot.
Ruiz is one of seven immigrants detained who filed a federal class action lawsuit in the Northern District of California against the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Wednesday for “inhumane” and “punitive” conditions at California City Detention Facility in the Mojave Desert.
“Conditions in California City are horrific,” said Tess Borden, a lawyer with the Prison Law Office. “The conditions are punishing and they are meant to punish.”
An image used in a class action lawsuit filed by the ACLU of the interior of the California City Detention Facility in the Mojave Desert.
(ACLU)
“Defendants are failing to provide constitutionally adequate care for the people in the facility,” Borden said. “Mr. Gomez Ruiz is just tragically one such example.”
The complaint details alleged “decrepit” conditions inside California’s newest detention facility, where sewage bubbles up shower drains, insects crawl up and down the walls of cold concrete group cells the size of parking lots, calls for medical help go unanswered for weeks and people are excessively punished.
Ryan Gustin, a spokesman for CoreCivic, which operates the facility, referred questions to DHS and ICE, but said in a statement “the safety, health and well-being of the individuals entrusted to our care is our top priority.
“We take seriously our responsibility to adhere to all applicable federal detention standards in our ICE-contracted facilities, including the [California City facility.] Our immigration facilities are monitored very closely by our government partners at ICE, and they are required to undergo regular review and audit processes to ensure an appropriate standard of living and care for all detainees.”
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But last month when asked about the center, Tricia McLaughlin, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, defended the conditions.
“ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens,” she said. “All detainees are provided with proper meals, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with lawyers and their family members.”
The lawsuit alleges just the opposite: inadequate food and water, frigid conditions, forced isolation and lack of access to lawyers. It also details instances where life-threatening conditions allegedly weren’t attended to.
An image used in a class action lawsuit filed by the ACLU of the interior of the California City Detention Facility in the Mojave Desert.
(ACLU)
One of the plaintiffs, Yuri Alexander Roque Campos, didn’t get his needed heart medications. Since arriving there he has had two emergency hospitalizations for severe chest pain. The last time he was there, the doctor told him “he could die if this were to happen again,” according to the lawsuit.
“It is exemplary of the trauma and the heartbreak that people are experiencing inside,” Borden said.
The former prison opened without proper permitting in August as the Trump administration pushed to expand detention capacity nationwide. By the next month, immigrants inside the 2,500 capacity facility launched a hunger strike protesting conditions.
The lawsuit was brought by the Prison Law Office, the American Civil Liberties Union, the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice and Keker, Van Nest & Peters.
As a court battle continued over whether President Trump can legally deploy the National Guard in Illinois, a brawl broke out Saturday night between protesters and state police at an immigration detention facility near Chicago.
The protest, which had largely been a peaceful gathering of a few hundred people at the facility in Broadview, quickly turned chaotic as protesters jumped a line of concrete barriers, stopping traffic and violating police orders to stay off the street.
By 8 p.m., 15 people had been arrested, according to Matthew Waldberg, a spokesperson for the Cook County Sheriff’s Office and the unified command for the protests, which includes local and state police. Eight of the arrests occurred during the evening chaos, while seven were made earlier that day.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility has been a flashpoint for weeks as protesters have expressed their anger and frustration at Trump’s immigration crackdown with chants, signs and fist shaking. In the last two weeks, law enforcement officers have responded with tear gas and rubber pellets on several occasions. Last week, officers pelted a pastor in the head with a rubber pepper ball.
Tensions increased last week as Trump announced his intention to deploy federalized National Guard troops from Illinois and Texas to protect ICE and its facility.
On Saturday, an appeals court paused a lower court’s ruling that halted any deployment of the National Guard within Illinois for two weeks. The new ruling says the troops — 300 from Illinois and 200 from Texas — can remain under federal control but cannot be deployed.
White House officials cited “ongoing violent riots and lawlessness,” which they claimed local law enforcement was unable to quell, as a justification for deploying the troops. Twenty troops from California were also sent to Illinois to provide “refresher training.”
At the ICE facility in Broadview on Saturday night, police pulled out wooden batons and pushed the crowd down the street, threatening to deploy tear gas if people didn’t disperse and go home. The protesters largely retreated, but a few threw objects at the police line, and skirmishes ensued.
One woman was knocked to the ground by police, her head hitting the cement curb. A man wearing all black and a gas mask was tackled and pushed to the ground by police before he was handcuffed and taken away.
The conflicts in the Chicago area come as Trump has ramped up immigration enforcement and deployed federal troops in several Democratic-run cities, beginning with Los Angeles this summer. The National Guard was patrolling alongside local police in Memphis last week, while in Portland, troop deployments are on hold after the state of Oregon challenged the move. The administration claims the city has become lawless, while Oregon officials argue Trump is manufacturing a crisis to justify calling in the National Guard.
The mayor of Broadview issued a city-wide order banning protests before 9 a.m. and after 6 p.m., which has been enforced.
“It’s been intense and a lot,” said Dominique Dandridge, who lives across the street from the detention center and has watched as vans arrive and depart at all hours of the night.
In between the conflicts with law enforcement, there has been plenty of down time, with social media influencers looking to make their mark. Selfie sticks have been as prevalent at the Broadview protests as gas masks, balaclavas, safety goggles and flags.
Don Lemon, a former CNN journalist and now YouTuber, roamed through the small crowd Friday and Saturday, closely followed by a videographer, two crew members and a security guard.
Then there was Cam Higby, a conservative social media influencer from Seattle who is on a tour of college campuses, where he invites students to debate with him. His presence has angered some protesters, who chanted “Temu Charlie Kirk,” suggesting that he was a cheap version of the conservative influencer fatally shot in September while speaking at a college campus in Utah.
Also present was Nick Shirley, a 23-year-old conservative influencer. On Friday, he was escorted into the ICE facility by armed agents. Protesters jeered as he walked by, following him with their phone cameras as he pointed his own camera back at them.
He told a reporter that he went into the facility for training — he was going to livestream an ICE raid that weekend.
BROADVIEW, Ill. — The streets were quiet just a block from the ICE processing facility where the National Guard deployed Thursday to protect federal agents and property.
Residents walked their dogs. Kids went to and from school. An Amazon delivery driver parked his van on the side of South 24th Street, turned on his hazard lights and dropped off a few packages — seemingly unhurried or concerned about the dozen people chanting and carrying signs outside the facility on South 25th street.
Broadview, a suburb of roughly 8,000 people 12 miles west of downtown Chicago, has become a focal point in President Trump’s immigration crackdown in Illinois. It’s where in the last couple of weeks Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents shot a peacefully protesting Presbyterian pastor in the head with a pepper ball, and where dozens of protesters and journalists have been tear-gassed and hit with pepper balls.
Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson, 55, shook her head when asked about the military presence, and said the whole situation seemed unnecessary and overblown.
Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson.
(Mayor Katrina Thompson FB)
“It’s calm in the city of Chicago. It’s no different than most major cities. Sure, it has issues. They all do. But they don’t call for the National Guard,” she said. “The last time I remember a National Guard coming in to a city was with Rodney King. But that was different. People were enraged. There were riots in the streets. People were looting shops and businesses. There is nothing like that happening here.”
Thompson grew up in Inglewood and graduated from Inglewood High School in 1988. She was in Los Angeles during the 1992 riots and keenly remembers the rage, violence and fear.
She’s adamant that what happened then has no comparison to what’s happening in Chicago now.
This week, about 200 Texas National Guard troops and 300 Illinois National Guard troops were deployed to the Chicago area by Trump to protect federal agents and property from protesters. About 20 California National Guard troops were also pulled into political battle, deployed to provide “refresher training,” the North American Aerospace Defense Command said in a statement. “These California National Guard soldiers will not be supporting the Federal Protection Mission in Illinois.”
On Thursday afternoon, a federal judge in Chicago entered a 14-day temporary restraining order preventing the federalization and deployment of the National Guard in Illinois. U.S. District Judge April Perry said she had “seen no credible evidence that there is a danger of rebellion in Illinois” and described the Trump administration’s version of events as “simply unreliable.” She said National Guard troops would “only add fuel to the fire.”
In downtown Chicago, people are shopping. Going to work. On Wednesday night, after a protest had formed downtown near the Trump International Hotel & Tower, the streets were nearly deserted. A few young men were seen going into the Elephant & Castle pub near the Chicago Board of Trade building, while a happy-looking couple strolled along the Chicago Riverwalk, holding hands and giggling.
Thompson said she is not interested in jumping into the national political fray and is focused on the things that are important to her constituents — such as making sure that the streets are clean, that Broadview’s police and firefighters have the resources and support they need, and that her residents feel safe.
But Thompson did find herself in the spotlight last week when she denied Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem access to the Broadview Municipal Building’s bathroom.
Thompson said that it was nothing personal, but that Noem showed up, unannounced, with a camera crew and a videographer.
“She came with a whole bunch of military people dressed in their military gear. And I said I’m not letting you in here. We work here. We don’t know what your intent is. If she had good intentions, you know what professionals do? They call and make an appointment. They don’t show up unannounced with dozens of people carrying guns,” Thompson said.
Thompson is also suing the federal government for erecting a fence around the ICE facility that she fears could prevent her first responders from getting inside should someone — detainee, ICE agent or government official — need help.
“When we talk about people having strokes, every second matters,” she said. “If we can’t get to them, that person could be severely disabled for a lifetime, or lose their life because a decision was made — without consulting us — that that’s the way it should be.”
Outside the facility on Thursday, protesters were outnumbered roughly 4 to 1 by local, county and state law enforcement, as well as local and national media.
Kate Madrigal, 37, a homemaker, said she had come several times to the site to protest. Her husband is a naturalized citizen and together they have four children.
She said they live in fear that someone is going to take her husband or scare her kids, and she’s felt compelled to be bear witness and be present because “if my kids ask me what I did during this period to help, I want to tell them I was here. I did something.”
Next to her were two other women who have also been showing up with sporadic visits — driving from Aurora when their work schedules allow.
Jen Monaco and Maya Willis said they’ve also felt pulled to the site to keep an eye on the troops and show support for those being detained. Monaco said she often cleans up the debris left behind from the day before, and showed a reporter photos of rubber bullets, empty tear gas casements and spent pepper balls that she’d cleaned up.
She said until the media showed up in force Thursday, ICE agents had been harassing, scaring, and shooting at protesters with these kinds of crowd control devices. Agents have also shoved and assaulted protesters, they said.
Cook County sheriff’s police and the Illinois State Police were on scene, occasionally shouting into bullhorns when protesters or reporters crossed the concrete barriers that had been erected to create a protest zone or box.
At one point, a white man wearing a sombrero, poncho and fake mustache walked around and through the small group of protesters, yelling racial slurs and taunting them. He said he was there to represent “Mexicans for ICE” before taking off his shirt and challenging another protester to a fight.
The police moved him away but allowed him to continue calling out and chanting. A man in a Chicago Bears T-shirt egged him on and said the man looked like he worked out a lot.
Two other women showed up around the same time, with wigs, and yelled curses at the ICE officials and National Guard troops on the other side of the new chain-link fence surrounding the facility.
Thompson has instituted a curfew around the facility, allowing protests to occur only between f 9 a.m. and 6 p.m.
“We have business in the area and people need to get to work. We’ve got kids who need to get to school,” she said. “Let’s let them do what they need to do, and then you all can come in and protest.”
But some protesters thought the curfew violated their right to free speech. Robert Held, a Chicago-based trust and estate lawyer, received a citation about 7:45 am for having come to the site before curfew was lifted.
“I’m not going to pay it,” he said, suggesting he’d heard the violation could cost him $750. “The ordinance is invalidly based. It violates my 1st Amendment rights.”
PORTLAND, Ore. – A peaceful march in downtown Portland on Sunday drew no arrests or injuries, according to the Portland Police Bureau, which facilitated the event with assistance from Dialogue Officers and traffic enforcement teams.
Officers on motorcycles and bicycles helped manage traffic while Dialogue Officers communicated with participants and answered questions throughout the march.
While the downtown march remained uneventful, a separate gathering near the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) building in South Portland escalated during the evening. At one point, a vehicle attempting to drive through the crowd was surrounded. Dialogue Officers intervened and helped the driver exit the area safely.
Throughout the night, police observed several altercations between individuals with opposing views. Around 9:30 p.m., officers arrested a 17-year-old male from Milwaukie, Oregon, for fourth-degree assault near South Bond Avenue and South Abernathy Street. The juvenile was released to a guardian, and the case will be referred to the Juvenile Justice Court.
At approximately 10 p.m., the Rapid Response Team made a second arrest. Nathan McFarland, 38, of Portland, was taken into custody and booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center on a charge of third-degree assault.
PPB said no force was used by officers during either incident.
Police also took a report of a property crime during the gathering and are continuing to investigate.
The bureau reiterated that it does not engage in immigration enforcement.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Tuesday that a Mexican national and former DACA recipient had died in their custody after being transferred to a local hospital in Victorville.
Ismael Ayala-Uribe, 39 was pronounced dead Sunday at the Victor Valley Global Medical Center, according to an ICE statement.
Ayala-Uribe is now the 14th detainee to die in immigration detention since January, when federal immigration officials began to carry out President Trump’s mass deportation agenda.
News of his death comes on the day that two Democratic senators from Georgia sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Todd Lyons, the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, raising concerns about the rise in the number of deaths in ICE custody, in particular two that occurred at the Stewart Detention Center in Georgia. NPR was the first to report on the letter.
In July, Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga) released the findings of a probe into alleged human rights violations that have occurred at immigration detention centers, including dozens of reports of physical and sexual abuse, and mistreatment of pregnant women and children. DHS rejected the senator’s allegations in a statement.
In California, the Adelanto Detention Center, one of the largest in the state, has long been the focus of complaints from detainees, attorneys and state and federal inspectors about inadequate medical care, overly restrictive segregation and lax mental health services.
That month, U.S. Rep Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park), toured the detention center with four other Democratic members of Congress from California amid concern over the increasing number of detainees and deteriorating conditions inside.
The facility’s manager “has to clearly improve its treatment of these detainees,” Chu said at a news conference after inspecting the facility.
Some of the detainees told lawmakers they were held inside Adelanto for 10 days without a change of clothes, underwear or towels, Chu said. Others said they had been denied access to a telephone to speak to loved ones and lawyers, even after repeatedly filling out forms.
A spokesperson for DHS could not immediately be reached for comment on Sunday’s death. But the agency said in its statement about Ayala-Uribe that immigration agencies such as ICE and Customs and Border Protection are committed to ensuring the safety of people who are in their custody.
“Comprehensive medical care is provided from the moment individuals arrive and throughout the entirety of their stay,” the agency’s statement read. “All people in ICE custody receive medical, dental and mental health intake screening within 12 hours of arriving at each detention facility, a full health assessment within 14 days of entering ICE custody or arrival at a facility, access to medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care. At no time during detention is a detained illegal alien denied emergent care.”
According to the agency statement, Ayala-Uribe, a Mexican national, was being held at a processing center in Adelanto where he had been seen by an on-call medical provider, who prescribed medication to him, although immigration officials did not say why.
But three days later, Ayala-Uribe was sent to the Victor Valley Global Medical Center to further evaluate an “abscess on his buttock” and was scheduled to undergo surgery for it, the statement said.
“Ayala was also hypertensive and displayed abnormal tachycardia,” immigration officials wrote in the statement. “At 1:48 a.m. the [medical center] declared Ayala unresponsive and initiated lifesaving measures. He was declared deceased at 2:32 a.m. by medical staff.”
According to ICE, Ayala-Uribe entered the United States at an unknown date and location. He applied for, and received, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals protection in 2012. He was sentenced to three years probation after he was convicted of driving while under the influence in 2015, the agency said.
In 2016, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services denied his application to renew his DACA status. He was convicted of his second DUI in June 2019 and sentenced to 120 days in jail, plus five years of probation, according to ICE.
Ayala-Uribe was arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Aug. 17 and transferred to Adelanto on Aug. 22.
Immigration officials said the cause of death is still under investigation. The Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Bill of 2018 requires that ICE make public reports regarding any in-custody deaths within 90 days.
ICE officials said they make official notifications to Congress, nongovernmental organization stakeholders and the media about a detainee’s death and post a news release with relevant details on its website within two business days per the agency’s policy.
Ayala-Uribe’s family has organized a fundraiser, selling tamales, carnitas and pozole on Saturday, to raise money for his funeral.
Times staff writer Nathan Solis contributed to this report.
A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer listens during a briefing, Jan. 27, 2025, in Silver Spring, Md. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
Portland, Ore. — The City of Portland is set to issue a formal land use violation notice this Thursday to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility located in Southwest Portland, citing repeated violations of conditions tied to the site’s land use approval.
An investigation by the city’s permitting bureau, launched in late July, found that the facility violated a key restriction that prohibits holding detainees for more than 12 hours or overnight. Federal records show 25 such violations between October 1, 2024, and July 27, 2025. The most recent instance occurred on May 20, 2025.
“This facility made clear detention limitation commitments to our community, and we believe they broke those policies more than two dozen times,” said Portland Mayor Keith Wilson. “I am proud of our team for conducting a thorough, thoughtful investigation and referring the matter to the next steps in the land use violation process.”
In addition to the detention-related violations, the notice also references a separate issue concerning boarded-up windows at the site, although that is not related to the land use conditions.
The ICE facility at 4310 S. Macadam Ave. has operated under a conditional land use approval since 2011, shortly after the property owner secured a long-term lease with the General Services Administration for ICE-affiliated agencies. The site serves as a processing center where individuals are interviewed to determine their legal immigration status.
The investigation was prompted by complaints and data from the Deportation Data Project, a nonprofit organization that used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain records from ICE facilities nationwide.
Under Portland’s land use rules, the site’s operator will have 30 days from receipt of the notice to correct the violation. If evidence supports the city’s findings, civil penalties may be imposed. Additionally, Portland Permitting & Development could schedule a hearing to reconsider the site’s land use approval, typically held at least 60 days after the notice is issued. Any decision made by the hearings officer may be appealed to the Portland City Council.
For now, the ICE facility is allowed to continue operating under its existing land use approval while the process unfolds.
As a sanctuary city, Portland does not use local resources to enforce federal immigration law. City employees, including Portland Police Bureau officers, only cooperate with ICE when required by federal law.
A Georgia judge on Tuesday said he will toss the racketeering charges against all 61 defendants accused of a years-long conspiracy to halt the construction of a police and firefighter training facility that critics pejoratively call “Cop City.”Fulton County Judge Kevin Farmer said he does not believe Republican Attorney General Chris Carr had the authority to secure the 2023 indictments under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law, or RICO. Experts believe it was the largest criminal racketeering case ever filed against protesters in U.S. history.The defendants faced a wide variety of allegations — everything from throwing Molotov cocktails at police officers, to supplying food to protesters who were camped in the woods and passing out fliers against a state trooper who had fatally shot a protester. Each defendant faced up to 20 years in prison on the RICO charges.Farmer said during a hearing that Carr needed Gov. Brian Kemp’s permission to pursue the case instead of the local district attorney. Prosecutors earlier conceded that they did not obtain any such order.“It would have been real easy to just ask the governor, ‘Let me do this, give me a letter,’” Farmer said. “The steps just weren’t followed.”The case is not over yetFive of the 61 defendants were also indicted on charges of domestic terrorism and first-degree arson connected to a 2023 “night of rage” in which masked activists burned a police car in downtown Atlanta and threw rocks at a skyscraper that houses the Atlanta Police Foundation. Farmer said Carr also didn’t have the authority to pursue the arson charge, though he believes the domestic terrorism charge can stand.Farmer said he plans to file a formal order soon and is not sure whether he would quash the entire indictment or let the domestic terrorism charge proceed.Deputy Attorney General John Fowler told Farmer that he believes the judge’s decision is “wholly incorrect.”Carr plans to “appeal immediately,” spokesperson Kara Murray said.“The Attorney General will continue the fight against domestic terrorists and violent criminals who want to destroy life and property,” she said.Defense attorney Don Samuel said the case was rife with errors. Defense attorneys had expected to spend the whole week going through dozens of dismissal motions that had been filed. During an impassioned speech on Monday, the first day of the hearing, Samuel called the case “an assault on the right of people to protest” and urged Farmer to “put a stop to this.”“We could have spun the wheel and seen which argument was going to win first,” Samuel told The Associated Press after Farmer announced his decision from the bench.The long-brewing controversy over the training center erupted in January 2023 after state troopers who were part of a sweep of the South River Forest killed an activist, known as “Tortuguita,” who authorities said had fired at them while inside a tent near the construction site. A prosecutor found the troopers’ actions “objectively reasonable,” though Tortuguita’s family has filed a lawsuit, saying the 26-year-old’s hands were in the air and that troopers used excessive force when they initially fired pepper balls into the tent.Numerous protests ensued, with masked vandals sometimes attacking police vehicles and construction equipment to stall the project and intimidate contractors into backing out. Opponents also pursued civic paths to halt the facility, including packing City Council meetings and leading a massive referendum effort that got tied up in the courts.Carr, who is running for governor, had pursued the case, with Kemp hailing it as an important step to combat “out-of-state radicals that threaten the safety of our citizens and law enforcement.”But critics had decried the indictment as a politically motivated, heavy-handed attempt to quash the movement against the 85-acre project that ultimately cost more than $115 million.Environmentalists and anti-police activists were unitedEmerging in the wake of the 2020 racial justice protests, the “Stop Cop City” movement gained nationwide recognition as it united anarchists, environmental activists and anti-police protesters against the sprawling training center, which was being built in a wooded area that was ultimately razed in DeKalb County.Activists argued that uprooting acres of trees for the facility would exacerbate environmental damage in a flood-prone, majority-Black area while serving as an expensive staging ground for militarized officers to be trained in quelling social movements.The training center, a priority of Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, opened earlier this year, despite years of protests and millions in cost overruns, some of it due to the damage protesters caused, and police officials’ needs to bolster 24/7 security around the facility.But over the past two years, the case had been bogged down in procedural issues, with none of the defendants going to trial. Farmer and the case’s previous judge, Fulton County Judge Kimberly Esmond Adams, had earlier been critical of prosecutors’ approach to the case, with Adams saying the prosecution had committed “gross negligence” by allowing privileged attorney-client emails to be included among a giant cache of evidence that was shared between investigators and dozens of defense attorneys.As the delays continued, defendants said their lives had been wrecked by the charges, with many unable to secure steady jobs or housing.Three of the defendants, organizers of a bail fund that supported the protesters, had also been charged with 15 counts of money laundering, but prosecutors dropped those charges last year.Prosecutors had previously apologized to the court for various delays and missteps, but lamented the difficulty of handling such a sprawling case, though Farmer pointed out that it was prosecutors who decided to bring this “61-person elephant” to court in the first place.Defense attorney Xavier de Janon said Farmer’s decision is a “victory,” but noted that there are other defendants still facing unindicted domestic terrorism charges in DeKalb County, as well as numerous pending misdemeanors connected to the movement.“The prosecutions haven’t ended against this movement, and I hope that people continue to pay attention to how the state is dealing with protests and activism, because it hasn’t ended,” de Janon said. “This is a win, and hopefully many more will come.”
ATLANTA —
A Georgia judge on Tuesday said he will toss the racketeering charges against all 61 defendants accused of a years-long conspiracy to halt the construction of a police and firefighter training facility that critics pejoratively call “Cop City.”
Fulton County Judge Kevin Farmer said he does not believe Republican Attorney General Chris Carr had the authority to secure the 2023 indictments under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law, or RICO. Experts believe it was the largest criminal racketeering case ever filed against protesters in U.S. history.
The defendants faced a wide variety of allegations — everything from throwing Molotov cocktails at police officers, to supplying food to protesters who were camped in the woods and passing out fliers against a state trooper who had fatally shot a protester. Each defendant faced up to 20 years in prison on the RICO charges.
Farmer said during a hearing that Carr needed Gov. Brian Kemp’s permission to pursue the case instead of the local district attorney. Prosecutors earlier conceded that they did not obtain any such order.
“It would have been real easy to just ask the governor, ‘Let me do this, give me a letter,’” Farmer said. “The steps just weren’t followed.”
The case is not over yet
Five of the 61 defendants were also indicted on charges of domestic terrorism and first-degree arson connected to a 2023 “night of rage” in which masked activists burned a police car in downtown Atlanta and threw rocks at a skyscraper that houses the Atlanta Police Foundation. Farmer said Carr also didn’t have the authority to pursue the arson charge, though he believes the domestic terrorism charge can stand.
Farmer said he plans to file a formal order soon and is not sure whether he would quash the entire indictment or let the domestic terrorism charge proceed.
Deputy Attorney General John Fowler told Farmer that he believes the judge’s decision is “wholly incorrect.”
Carr plans to “appeal immediately,” spokesperson Kara Murray said.
“The Attorney General will continue the fight against domestic terrorists and violent criminals who want to destroy life and property,” she said.
Defense attorney Don Samuel said the case was rife with errors. Defense attorneys had expected to spend the whole week going through dozens of dismissal motions that had been filed. During an impassioned speech on Monday, the first day of the hearing, Samuel called the case “an assault on the right of people to protest” and urged Farmer to “put a stop to this.”
“We could have spun the wheel and seen which argument was going to win first,” Samuel told The Associated Press after Farmer announced his decision from the bench.
The long-brewing controversy over the training center erupted in January 2023 after state troopers who were part of a sweep of the South River Forest killed an activist, known as “Tortuguita,” who authorities said had fired at them while inside a tent near the construction site. A prosecutor found the troopers’ actions “objectively reasonable,” though Tortuguita’s family has filed a lawsuit, saying the 26-year-old’s hands were in the air and that troopers used excessive force when they initially fired pepper balls into the tent.
Numerous protests ensued, with masked vandals sometimes attacking police vehicles and construction equipment to stall the project and intimidate contractors into backing out. Opponents also pursued civic paths to halt the facility, including packing City Council meetings and leading a massive referendum effort that got tied up in the courts.
Carr, who is running for governor, had pursued the case, with Kemp hailing it as an important step to combat “out-of-state radicals that threaten the safety of our citizens and law enforcement.”
But critics had decried the indictment as a politically motivated, heavy-handed attempt to quash the movement against the 85-acre project that ultimately cost more than $115 million.
Environmentalists and anti-police activists were united
Emerging in the wake of the 2020 racial justice protests, the “Stop Cop City” movement gained nationwide recognition as it united anarchists, environmental activists and anti-police protesters against the sprawling training center, which was being built in a wooded area that was ultimately razed in DeKalb County.
Activists argued that uprooting acres of trees for the facility would exacerbate environmental damage in a flood-prone, majority-Black area while serving as an expensive staging ground for militarized officers to be trained in quelling social movements.
The training center, a priority of Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, opened earlier this year, despite years of protests and millions in cost overruns, some of it due to the damage protesters caused, and police officials’ needs to bolster 24/7 security around the facility.
But over the past two years, the case had been bogged down in procedural issues, with none of the defendants going to trial. Farmer and the case’s previous judge, Fulton County Judge Kimberly Esmond Adams, had earlier been critical of prosecutors’ approach to the case, with Adams saying the prosecution had committed “gross negligence” by allowing privileged attorney-client emails to be included among a giant cache of evidence that was shared between investigators and dozens of defense attorneys.
As the delays continued, defendants said their lives had been wrecked by the charges, with many unable to secure steady jobs or housing.
Three of the defendants, organizers of a bail fund that supported the protesters, had also been charged with 15 counts of money laundering, but prosecutors dropped those charges last year.
Prosecutors had previously apologized to the court for various delays and missteps, but lamented the difficulty of handling such a sprawling case, though Farmer pointed out that it was prosecutors who decided to bring this “61-person elephant” to court in the first place.
Defense attorney Xavier de Janon said Farmer’s decision is a “victory,” but noted that there are other defendants still facing unindicted domestic terrorism charges in DeKalb County, as well as numerous pending misdemeanors connected to the movement.
“The prosecutions haven’t ended against this movement, and I hope that people continue to pay attention to how the state is dealing with protests and activism, because it hasn’t ended,” de Janon said. “This is a win, and hopefully many more will come.”
WASHINGTON — Mattresses on the floor, next to bunk beds, in meeting rooms and gymnasiums. No access to a bathroom or drinking water. Hourlong lines to buy food at the commissary or to make a phone call.
These are some of the conditions described by lawyers and the people held at immigrant detention facilities around the country over the last few months. The number of detained immigrants surpassed a record 60,000 this month. A Los Angeles Times analysis of public data shows that more than a third of ICE detainees have spent time in an overcapacity dedicated detention center this year.
In the first half of the year, at least 19 out of 49 dedicated detention facilities exceeded their rated bed capacity and many more holding facilities and local jails exceeded their agreed-upon immigrant detainee capacity. During the height of arrest activity in June, facilities that were used to operating with plenty of available beds suddenly found themselves responsible for the meals, medical attention, safety and sleeping space for four times as many detainees as they had the previous year.
“There are so many things we’ve seen before — poor food quality, abuse by guards, not having clean clothes or underwear, not getting hygiene products,” said Silky Shah, executive director of Detention Watch Network, a coalition that aims to abolish immigrant detention. “But the scale at which it’s happening feels greater, because it’s happening everywhere and people are sleeping on floors.”
Shah said there’s no semblance of dignity now. “I’ve been doing this for many years; I don’t think I even had the imagination of it getting this bad,” she added.
Shah said conditions have deteriorated in part because of how quickly this administration scaled up arrests. It took the first Trump administration more than two years to reach its peak of about 55,0000 detainees in 2019.
Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin called the allegations about inhumane detention conditions false and a “hoax.” She said the agency has significantly expanded detention space in places such as Indiana and Nebraska and is working to rapidly remove detainees from those facilities to their countries of origin.
McLaughlin emphasized that the department provides comprehensive medical care, but did not respond to questions about other conditions.
Detainees do stretches outdoors as a helicopter flies overhead at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Krome detention center in Miami on July 4, 2025.
(Rebecca Blackwell / Associated Press)
At the Krome North Service Processing Center in Miami, the maximum number of detainees in a day in 2024 was 615, four more than the rated bed capacity of 611. In late June of this year, the detainee population reached 1,961, more than three times the capacity. The facility, which is near the Everglades, spent 161 days in the beginning of the year with more people to house than beds.
Miami attorney Katie Blankenship of the legal aid organization Sanctuary of the South represents people detained at Krome. Last month, she saw nine Black men piled into a visitation room, surrounded with glass windows, that holds a small table and four chairs. They had pushed the table against the wall and spread a cardboard box flat across the floor, where they were taking turns sleeping.
The men had no access to a bathroom or drinking water. They stood because there was no room to sit.
Blankenship said three of the men put their documents up to the window so she could better understand their cases. All had overstayed their visas and were detained as part of an immigration enforcement action, not criminal proceedings.
Another time, Blankenship said, she saw an elderly man cramped up in pain, unable to move, on the floor of a bigger room. Other men put chairs together and lifted him so he could rest more comfortably while guards looked on, she said.
Blankenship visits often enough that people held in the visitation and holding rooms recognize her as a lawyer whenever she walks by. They bang on the glass, yell out their identification numbers and plead for help, she said.
“These are images that won’t leave me,” Blankenship said. “It’s dystopian.”
Krome is unique in the dramatic fluctuation of its detainee population. On Feb. 18, the facility saw its biggest single-day increase. A total of 521 individuals were booked in, most transferred from hold rooms across the state, including Orlando and Tampa. Hold rooms are temporary spaces for detainees to await further processing for transfers, medical treatment or other movement into or out of a facility. They are to be used to hold individuals for no more than 12 hours.
On the day after its huge influx, Krome received a waiver exempting the facility from the requirement to log hold room activity. But it never resumed the logs. Homeland Security did not respond to a request for an explanation of the exception.
After reaching their first peak of 1,764 on March 16, the trend reversed.
Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.) visited Krome on April 24. In the weeks before the visit, hundreds of detainees were transferred out. Most were moved to other facilities in Florida, some to Texas and Louisiana.
“When those lawmakers came around, they got rid of a whole bunch of detainees,” said Blankenship’s client Mopvens Louisdor.
The 30-year-old man from Haiti said conditions started to deteriorate around March as hundreds of extra people were packed into the facility.
Staffers are so overwhelmed that for detainees who can’t leave their cells for meals, he said, “by the time food gets to us, it’s cold.”
Also during this time, from April 29 through May 1, the facility underwent a compliance inspection conducted by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office of Detention Oversight. Despite the dramatic reduction in the population, the inspection found several issues with crowding and meals. Some rooms exceeded the 25-person capacity for each and some hold times were nearly double the 12-hour limit. Inspectors observed detainees sleeping on the hold room floors without pillows or blankets. Staffers had not recorded offering a meal to the detainees in the hold rooms for more than six hours.
Hold rooms are not designed for long waits
ICE detention standards require just 7 square feet of unencumbered space for each detainee. Seating must provide 18 inches of space per detainee.
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Sanitary and medical attention were also areas of concern noted in the inspection. In most units, there were too many detainees for the number of toilets, showers and sinks. Some medical records showed that staffers failed to complete required mental and medical health screenings for new arrivals, and failed to complete tuberculosis screenings.
Detainees have tested positive for tuberculosis at facilities such as the Anchorage Correctional Complex in Alaska and the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in California. McLaughlin, the Homeland Security assistant secretary, said that detainees are screened for tuberculosis within 12 hours of arrival and that anyone who refuses a test is isolated as a precaution.
“It is a long-standing practice to provide comprehensive medical care from the moment an alien enters ICE custody,” she said. “This includes medical, dental, and mental health intake screening within 12 hours of arriving at each detention facility, a full health assessment within 14 days of entering ICE custody or arrival at a facility, and access to medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care.”
Facility administrators built a tented area outside the main building to process arriving detainees, but it wasn’t enough to alleviate the overcrowding, Louisdor said. Earlier this month, areas with space for around 65 detainees were holding more than 100, with cots spread across the floor between bunk beds.
Over-capacity facilities can feel extremely cramped
Bed capacity ratings are based on facility design. Guidelines require 50 square feet of space for each individual. When buildings designed to those specifications go over their rated capacity, there is not enough room to house additional detainees safely and comfortably.
American Correctional Association and Immigration and Customs Enforcement
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Louisdor said a young man who uses a wheelchair had resorted to relieving himself in a water bottle because staffers weren’t available to escort him to the restroom.
During the daily hour that detainees are allowed outside for recreation, 300 people stood shoulder to shoulder, he said, making it difficult to get enough exercise. When fights occasionally broke out, guards could do little to stop them, he said.
The line to buy food or hygiene products at the commissary was so long that sometimes detainees left empty-handed.
Louisdor said he has bipolar disorder, for which he takes medication. The day he had a court hearing, the staff mistakenly gave him double the dosage, leaving him unable to stand.
Since then, Louisdor said, conditions have slightly improved, though dormitories are still substantially overcrowded.
In California, detainees and lawyers similarly reported that medical care has deteriorated.
Tracy Crowley, a staff attorney at Immigrant Defenders Law Center, said clients with serious conditions such as hypertension, diabetes and cancer don’t receive their medication some days.
Cells that house up to eight people are packed with 11. With air conditioning blasting all night, detainees have told her the floor is cold and they have gotten sick. Another common complaint, she said, is that clothes and bedding are so dirty that some clients are getting rashes all over their bodies, making it difficult to sleep.
Luis at Chicano Park in San Diego on Aug. 23, 2025.
(Ariana Drehsler / For The Times)
One such client is Luis, a 40-year-old from Colombia who was arrested in May at the immigration court in San Diego after a hearing over his pending asylum petition. Luis asked to be identified by his middle name out of concern over his legal case.
When he first arrived at Otay Mesa Detention Center, Luis said, the facility was already filled to the maximum capacity. By the time he left June 30, it was overcrowded. Rooms that slept six suddenly had 10 people. Mattresses were placed in a mixed-use room and in the gym.
Luis developed a rash, but at the medical clinic he was given allergy medication and sleeping pills. The infection continued until finally he showed it over a video call to his mother, who had worked in public health, and she told him to request an anti-fungal cream.
Luis was held at Otay Mesa Detention Center after his May arrest. It was at capacity when he arrived but by the time he left in June, it was overcrowded, he said.
(Ariana Drehsler / For The Times)
Other detainees often complained to Luis that their medication doses were incomplete or missing, including two men in his dorm who took anti-psychotic medication.
“They would get stressed out, start to fight — everything irritated them,” he said. “That affected all of us.”
Crowley said the facility doesn’t have the infrastructure or staff to hold as many people as are there now. The legal system also can’t process them in a timely manner, she said, forcing people to wait months for a hearing.
The administration’s push to detain more people is only compounding existing issues, Crowley said.
“They’re self-imposing the limit, and most of the people involved in that decision-making are financially incentivized to house more and more people,” she said. “Where is the limit with this administration?”
Members of the California National Guard load a truck outside the ICE Processing Center in Adelanto, Calif., on July 11, 2025.
(Patrick T. Fallon / AFP/Getty Images)
Other facilities in California faced similar challenges. At the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, the number of detainees soared to 1,000 from 300 over a week in June, prompting an outcry over deteriorated conditions.
As of July 29, Adelanto held 1,640 detainees. The Desert View Annex, an adjacent facility also operated by the GEO Group, held 451.
Disability Rights California toured the facility and interviewed staffers and 18 people held there. The advocacy organization released a report last month detailing its findings, including substantial delays in meal distribution, a shortage of drinking water, and laundry washing delays, leading many detainees to remain in soiled clothing for long periods.
In a letter released last month, 85 Adelanto detainees wrote, “They always serve the food cold … sometimes we don’t have water for 2 to 7 hours and they said to us to drink from the sink.”
At the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Ga., Rodney Taylor, a double amputee, was rendered nearly immobile.
Taylor, who was born in Liberia, uses electronic prosthetic legs that must be charged and can’t get wet. The outlets in his dormitory were inoperable, and because of the overcrowding and short-staffing, guards couldn’t take him to another area to plug them in, said his fiancee, Mildred Pierre.
“When they’re not charged they’re super heavy, like dead weight,” she said. It becomes difficult to balance without falling.
Pierre said the air conditioning in his unit didn’t work for two months, causing water to puddle on the floor. Taylor feared he would slip while walking and fall — which happened once in May — and damage the expensive prosthetics.
Last month, Taylor refused to participate in the daily detainee count, telling guards he wouldn’t leave his cell unless they agreed to leave the cell doors open to let the air circulate.
“They didn’t take him to charge his legs and now they wanted him to walk through water and go in a hot room,” Pierre recalled. “He said no — he stood his ground.”
Several guards surrounded him, yelling, Pierre said. They placed him in solitary confinement for three days as punishment, she said.
Charges have officially been filed after 21 dogs were found dead at a boarding facility in Argyle, New York.Robert and Anastasia Palulis, the owners of Anastasia’s Acres, are facing 22 misdemeanor counts after investigators said the building where the dogs were held did not have proper water access or ventilation.The charges are for overdriving, torturing, and injuring animals; failure to provide proper sustenance, which is considered a misdemeanor under New York State Law, according to court paperwork obtained by sister station WPTZ.One dog was taken to an emergency animal clinic for care.Both owners were released and are due in Argyle court at a later date.The owner of two of the dogs who died said she was devastated by the news of her beloved pets’ deaths.”Their house is literally 30 feet from the kennel where the dogs are boarded,” said Danielle Barber. “So the fact that nobody went out to check on the dogs at any point in time. I’m sure there were dogs barking in distress.”Anastasia’s Acres has been in business since 2020, and provides boarding, day care, training, grooming, and home care services for local dog owners, according to their website.Barber went on to say that she has not heard from either Robert or Anastasia Palulis following the incident.”I hope that she is held responsible… there are 21 dogs involved, it’s just completely unforgivable,” Barber said. “And the fact that she has not reached out in any sort of capacity to offer condolences, remorse, anything speaks volumes.”On Monday, WPTZ reached out to the owners of the business for comment, but they did not respond.
ARGYLE, N.Y. —
Charges have officially been filed after 21 dogs were found dead at a boarding facility in Argyle, New York.
Robert and Anastasia Palulis, the owners of Anastasia’s Acres, are facing 22 misdemeanor counts after investigators said the building where the dogs were held did not have proper water access or ventilation.
The charges are for overdriving, torturing, and injuring animals; failure to provide proper sustenance, which is considered a misdemeanor under New York State Law, according to court paperwork obtained by sister station WPTZ.
One dog was taken to an emergency animal clinic for care.
Both owners were released and are due in Argyle court at a later date.
via Washington County Sheriff’s Office
Robert and Anastasia Palulis
The owner of two of the dogs who died said she was devastated by the news of her beloved pets’ deaths.
“Their house is literally 30 feet from the kennel where the dogs are boarded,” said Danielle Barber. “So the fact that nobody went out to check on the dogs at any point in time. I’m sure there were dogs barking in distress.”
Anastasia’s Acres has been in business since 2020, and provides boarding, day care, training, grooming, and home care services for local dog owners, according to their website.
Barber went on to say that she has not heard from either Robert or Anastasia Palulis following the incident.
“I hope that she is held responsible… [the fact that] there are 21 dogs involved, it’s just completely unforgivable,” Barber said. “And the fact that she has not reached out in any sort of capacity to offer condolences, remorse, anything speaks volumes.”
On Monday, WPTZ reached out to the owners of the business for comment, but they did not respond.
Yosemite National Park’s historic Wawona Hotel is closing, and park officials are not saying when it will reopen. The hotel’s workers are being reassigned elsewhere.
One of the last times this Victorian-era hotel closed in Yosemite National Park, the raging flames from the 2022 Washburn fire had encroached and encircled the institution.
The hotel, which has the same name as the neighborhood in which it resides, was closed for two weeks that July, reopening that same month when the fires were extinguished and smoke and ash cleared.
Unlike that quick turnaround, the hotel’s next closing may not be so brief.
The National Park Service announced via Instagram on Wednesday that the 168-year-old hotel would close Dec. 2 for an unspecified period of time to allow the agency to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the hotel complex.
Yosemite Hospitality, which has run the Wawona and other park hotels since 2016, confirmed that there is no estimated reopening date.
(National Park Service)
“The NPS recently undertook a roof replacement project on the main hotel building which revealed the need for more intensive investigation and assessment of the hotel,” the National Park Service wrote.
A National Park Service spokesperson said the agency would not offer additional comment beyond its social media statement.
The Wawona Hotel issued a message saying it would issue refunds to guests with a reservation for Dec. 2 or later. The hotel said there was no estimated reopening date.
Yosemite Hospitality, which has run the Wawona and other park hotels since 2016, confirmed the indefinite closure and that hotel employees would be relocated to other positions within either Yosemite Hospitality or Aramark. Yosemite’s better-known Ahwahnee Hotel, which has welcomed guests since 1927, is open but still undergoing a $35-million earthquake retrofit.
“We have been entrusted with managing concessions at Yosemite National Park since 2016, and we hold our role as stewards of one of America’s most beloved national parks in the highest regard,” the statement read.
Yosemite Hospitality said that the hotel’s closure was necessary for the preservation of the historic building and that the group would continue to work with the National Park Service.
The two-story Wawona Hotel, nearly encircled by a Spanish-style veranda, has 50 standard rooms with private bathrooms and 54 additional rooms with shared restrooms.
While the hotel boasts of its nine-hole golf course, stables, swimming pool and lounge piano, the establishment and Yosemite Hospitality have come under criticism for safety issues in the last two years.
A 2023 annual evaluation from the federal Department of the Interior, obtained by SFGate through a Freedom of Information Act request, noted that “no significant action was taken” to address mounting safety concerns at the facility.
Yosemite Hospitality “has neglected to adequately address maintenance activities at the Wawona Hotel, which became particularly evident in 2023,” the report stated. “Extensive deterioration and damage to hotel facilities was noted on periodic evaluations conducted in 2023, in addition to Service condition assessments, including damage to railings, walkways, staircases, roofs, gutters and other physical assets.”
In June 2022, a guest fell from a porch at the hotel’s Clark Cottage after leaning on a railing that failed, according to the report.
A ceiling leak developed the following February at the Ahwahnee, also run by Yosemite Hospitality, the report said. Even though the National Park Service requested a patch, the report said, the room was still in service months later with the unfixed leak.
In April 2023, water intrusion through the roof caused a piece of the ceiling in the Ahwahnee’s dining solarium to fall and strike an employee, according to the report.
“The Service is extremely concerned about the risk to visitor and employee safety,” the report noted.
Warning: This article contains graphic descriptions of sexual abuse.
Federal prosecutors on Wednesday announced a civil rights investigation into sexual abuse of women behind bars in two California prisons, citing numerous reports of groping, inappropriate touching and rape by correctional workers.
The U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation violated the rights of women at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla and the California Institution for Women in Chino by failing to protect them from sexual abuse by prison staff.
The move comes after dozens of women held at the two prisons in the last two years brought multiple lawsuits against the corrections department, alleging that they were subjected to sexual harassment, molestation and rape by prison staff under the color of authority.
More than 30 current and former correctional officers have been named in the lawsuits, which graphically document allegations of sexual abuse stretching back more than a decade. The complaints also allege that, when they were at their most vulnerable, the women were punished and sometimes abused further for reporting their assailants.
Since 2014, at least 17 correctional officers accused of sexual misconduct in California women’s prisons have been fired, have resigned or have retired, according to records. Prison sexual abuse data, however, show few disciplinary consequences for the correctional staff despite hundreds of complaints — with most of the allegations not being sustained.
“No woman incarcerated in a jail or prison should be subjected to sexual abuse by prison staff who are constitutionally bound to protect them,” said Asst. Atty. Gen. Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Every woman, including those in prison, retains basic civil and constitutional rights and should be treated with dignity and respect. California must ensure that the people it incarcerates are housed in conditions that protect them from sexual abuse.”
“Correctional staff at both facilities reportedly sought sexual favors in return for contraband and privileges,” Clarke alleged, adding, “I’ll note that the correctional officers named in these allegations range in rank and have even included the very people responsible for handling complaints of sexual abuse made by women incarcerated at these facilities.”
In a statement responding to the probe, CDCR Secretary Jeff Macomber said, “Sexual assault is a heinous violation of fundamental human dignity that is not tolerated — under any circumstances — within California’s state prison system. Our department embraces transparency, and we fully welcome the U.S. Department of Justice’s independent investigation.”
Clarke said the investigation will examine reports from hundreds of women of inappropriate touching, groping and forcible rape.
“Sexual abuse and misconduct will not be tolerated in prisons,” said U.S. Atty. Martin Estrada for the Central District.
More than two dozen protesters marched in front of the California Institution For Women in Chino in April 14.
(Mark Boster / For The Times)
“Concern about the physical safety of people inside California women’s prisons is not new,” said U.S. Atty. Phillip A. Talbert for the Eastern District of California. “Media coverage, state audits, advocates’ efforts and private litigation have sought to draw attention to an issue often unseen by many in the community.”
Clarke said that at this stage, no conclusions have been drawn. However, federal prosecutors painted a dire picture of allegations made by the women California holds in the two prisons.
The federal action comes as a lawsuit accusing a former correctional officer at the Central California Women’s Facility of widespread sexual assaults is slated to go to trial in a California court. Filed on behalf of 21 women incarcerated at the California Institution for Women, the lawsuit included allegations of forcible rape, groping and oral copulation, as well as threats of violence and punishment with abusive conduct, from 2014 to 2020.
In addition, hundreds of lawsuits have been filed over the last decade making similar accusations against officers at the Central California Women’s Facility, Clarke said.
The legal actions pending against state correctional officers provide a road map of alleged depravity and inaction by prison authorities for federal prosecutors to pursue. For example, a lawsuit accuses a sergeant at the Chino prison of more than 40 often-violent rapes and other sexual misconduct in 2015. And a former officer at the Chowchilla prison, Gregory Rodriguez, awaits trial on 96 counts of sex crimes against nearly a dozen women held there.
Sexual abuse of incarcerated women is a widespread problem in facilities nationwide, with government surveys suggesting that more than 3,500 women are sexually abused by prison and jail workers annually. And it’s a problem in federal prisons as well as state lockups.
In April, the federal Bureau of Prisons closed the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, Calif., where more than a half-dozen correctional officers and the former warden have either been charged or convicted of sexually abusing female inmates. The prison was so plagued by sexual abuse that it was known among inmates and workers as the “rape club.”
An environmental investigation by the San Francisco district attorney’s office that began in 2018 and spurred similar inquiries throughout the state concluded Thursday, when a San Joaquin County judge ordered Tesla to pay $1.5 million for improperly disposing of hazardous materials.
The individual efforts turned into one combined civil environmental prosecution by 25 district attorneys from Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura and other counties into allegations that Tesla improperly disposed of used lead acid batteries, antifreeze, paint and electronic waste at its car service and energy centers throughout California.
The electric vehicle giant was also placed on a five-year injunction, which includes training employees to properly dispose of hazardous materials. Tesla must also hire an outside contractor to audit some of its trash containers for hazardous waste.
“While electric vehicles may benefit the environment, the manufacturing and servicing of these vehicles still generates many harmful waste streams,” San Francisco Dist. Atty. Brooke Jenkins said in a statement. “[Thursday’s] settlement against Tesla, Inc. serves to provide a cleaner environment for citizens throughout the state.”
Tesla lawyers did not respond to a request for comment.
In 2018, the San Francisco district attorney’s Environmental Division launched undercover inspections of trash containers at Tesla service departments. Investigators found that hazardous waste such as lubricating oils, brake cleaners, aerosols and contaminated debris were not properly disposed.
In court documents, the plaintiffs allege that Tesla placed hazardous waste into “any trash container, dumpster, or compactor at the facilities” or improperly outsourced the materials to transfer stations and landfills not suited for hazardous waste.
In Alameda County, inspectors found weld spatter waste, which sometimes contains copper, along with paint mix, used wipes with primer and other hazardous waste dumped into ordinary trash containers at Tesla’s Fremont factory.
Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer and Riverside County Dist. Atty. Mike Hestrin both said in statements that their own inspections at Tesla facilities “found similar unlawful disposal.”
Neither office responded to a Times request for elaboration on what was found and where.
“A company that is supposedly environmentally friendly should know better than to illegally dump hazardous waste that threatens to do irreparable damage to our communities,” Spitzer said in a statement.
Of the settlement money to be paid, $1.3 million will be split up among the 25 counties, while $200,000 pays for the cost of investigations.
Alameda County is slated to take the largest share, $225,000. San Francisco and San Joaquin will each claim $200,000; San Diego, Orange and Riverside will get $100,000; Los Angeles, $15,000; and Santa Barbara, San Bernardino and Ventura, $10,000.
Warning: This article contains graphic descriptions of sexual abuse.
It was after the daily 9 p.m. head count at the California Institution for Women in Chino when she was taken out of her cell by a correctional officer she thought was her friend.
She was 21 and not even 100 pounds and the officer, who stood about 6-foot-7, was twice her size. “It was unheard of to be popped after the head count. I knew something was up,” she said. “He told me the lieutenant wanted to see me.”
But when she got to the office, it was dark. “He started to kiss me and put his tongue in my mouth,” the woman said, recalling the 2014 incident. The Times is not naming her as she is a sex crime victim. “He put his hand in my pants. I tried to pull back, but he was persistent. Then he put his fingers inside me.” The next day, she said, he acted as if nothing had happened.
The woman is one of 130 former inmates at California’s women’s prisons at Chino and Chowchilla, suing the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and more than 30 current and ex-correctional officers who they say abused them in prison. They are seeking unspecified damages for sexual assault, battery, negligence, infliction of emotional distress and violations of civil rights.
Correctional officers at the California Institution for Women in Chino and Central California Women’s Facility committed widespread sexual abuse against the female detainees whom they guarded, according to a lawsuit filed last month. In many cases, the officers targeted and allegedly isolated the inmates and forced them to perform sexual acts, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit documents graphic incidents of sexual abuse stretching back a decade and reveals that the women, when they were at their most vulnerable, were punished and sometimes the victim of further abuse and punitive actions if they reported their assailants.
“Every woman’s worst nightmare is being locked inside a facility filled with sexual predators with no means of escape,” said Doug Rochen, an attorney at ACTS Law who is representing the women. “And that’s exactly what each of these women, and likely thousands more, were subjected to for decades. California paid no attention to their well-being, left them to suffer at the hands of the worst kinds of sexual deviants, and made them relive their pain daily while being locked behind bars.”
The lawsuit accused one sergeant at the Chino prison of more than 40 rapes — incidents of violence that often caused bleeding — and sexual misconduct involving a female inmate in 2015. Out of fear of retaliation and further confinement, one plaintiff, identified only as Jane CL-1 25 Roe, never reported the sexual misconduct, assuming the complaints would be “unanswered, dismissed, ignored, and buried without investigation or redress, thereby allowing the sexual misconduct to continue.”
One of the women is a victim of an accused serial-rapist correctional officer, Gregory Rodriguez, who is charged with 96 counts of sex crimes involving nearly a dozen women at the Chowchilla prison during his tenure, the lawsuit alleges. The 27-year-old woman in 2014 was allegedly forced to perform oral sex acts on the guard at a time she was pregnant, according to the lawsuit.
Another woman alleges she was sexually abused by then-correctional officer Israel Trevino in 2014 when she was 25. Trevino was terminated in 2018 after other allegations of sexual abuse. Several pending lawsuits accuse Trevino of abusing numerous victims. Trevino has since died.
That same former inmate, identified as Jane MS0 8 Roe, alleges she was also victimized by two other correctional officers, one who groped her and another who groped her and penetrated her vagina, according to the lawsuit.
Sexual abuse would occur in areas throughout the prisons, including cells, closets and storage rooms, the lawsuit alleges. In one alleged victim’s case, she was sexually abused in a cleaning supplies cupboard five times and eventually reported it to another correctional officer, who declined to take action. Rochen said it was part of a pattern of prison officials who systematically ignored complaints of sexual abuse.
California prison officials didn’t reply to a request for comment on the litigation.
Sexual abuse of incarcerated women is a widespread problem in facilities nationwide, with government surveys suggesting that more than 3,500 women are sexually abused by prison and jail workers annually.
In addition to the sexual misconduct by prison workers, the lawsuit alleged the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation had inadequate hiring practices, procedures and training to prevent the sexual abuse and conduct.
The lawsuit is the latest in a series targeting sexual abuse in California’s female prisons. Last summer, another law firm filed litigation involving more than 100 other plaintiffs, including victims of Rodriguez.
State law gives victims of sexual assault by police and correctional officers up to 10 years after their assailants have been convicted of sexual assault or a crime in which sexual assault was initially alleged to sue. Victims can also sue up to 10 years after their assailants left the law enforcement agency they were working at when the assault occurred.
Workers at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, one of California’s largest immigrant detention facilities, are urging the federal government not to shut it down next year following discussions over its potential closure, according to the union that represents many of them.
Randy Erwin, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees, said a contract extension by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement gives the agency until Feb. 19 to decide the facility’s future.
“This is a major employer in that area,” Erwin said. “If you close a facility like that, it would be absolutely devastating to the local economy and devastating to these workers.”
A former state prison that began operating as an ICE detention center in 2011, Adelanto currently holds few detainees though it has a capacity of 1,940. Its population dropped dramatically in 2020 after an outbreak of COVID-19 cases tore through the facility, prompting a federal judge to order the release of detainees, and to prohibit new intakes and transfers.
Adelanto has also faced scrutiny from federal and state watchdogs over health and safety violations.
In 2021, the Environmental Protection Agency issued a warning to the GEO Group, the Florida-based private prison corporation that operates the facility, after finding that misuse of a chemical disinfectant spray caused detainees nosebleeds and nausea. A few years earlier, federal inspectors found nooses in cells and overuse of disciplinary segregation. Detainees reported waiting months to see a doctor.
ICE did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A GEO Group spokesman declined to comment, referring questions to ICE.
Advocates said closing Adelanto would be a victory for immigrants and the local community. A coalition of groups called Shut Down Adelanto has urged the facility’s closure for years.
Erwin voiced his concerns about a possible closure in a Nov. 29 letter to President Biden, noting he learned that the “dramatic underutilization” of the facility could prompt its closure on Dec. 19, when the facility contract was up, which would lead to the termination of 350 union members just days before Christmas.
“This Administration considering the closure of the Adelanto ICE Processing Center at a time when capacity is so desperately needed in this area is genuinely perplexing and seemingly counter-intuitive,” he wrote, pointing to the Biden administration’s supplemental budget request in October to fund 12,500 more ICE beds.
Erwin argued that the request was inconsistent with a closure of the Adelanto facility, which is already paid for under existing appropriations.
Workers were happy to learn they would not immediately lose their jobs, Erwin said Tuesday, but they worry about what will happen long-term.
A GEO Group economic impact analysis provided to The Times by Erwin shows the company spent more than $46 million in the city of Adelanto this year, including nearly $40 million in wages.
Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Big Bear Lake) wrote to ICE leadership on Oct. 3 urging them to seek relief from the 2020 court order so that intakes could resume. Though the population of detainees at Adelanto has dwindled, the facility has remained fully staffed and operational, he said.
“This striking example of exorbitant government waste and resource mismanagement is completely unacceptable,” he wrote, noting that Adelanto is the only detention facility in the country with an absolute intake prohibition related to COVID-19.
Carlos Castillo Mejia, 52, of El Salvador is one of the six people who remain detained at the Adelanto facility. Castillo Mejia, who has been detained there for nearly five years and is currently appealing his deportation at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, said Friday that the facility was operating as normal, with no indication from staff that it would close.
“I can’t understand how the government has thought to keep this facility open with such a minimal number of people, paying millions and millions,” Castillo Mejia said.
