By Rob Bonta; Immigration Detention Facility Review Team
Enacted in response to growing concerns for the health and safety of people in civil immigration detention, Assembly Bill 103 (2017) (AB 103) requires the California Department of Justice (Cal DOJ) to review and report on civil immigration detention facilities operating within the State of California. This mandate has been a critical source of transparency for the public and policymakers regarding conditions in these facilities across California. Cal DOJ has previously issued four reports on conditions in immigration detention facilities in California in 2019, 2021, 2022, and 2025, identifying and documenting substandard and inhumane conditions that fail to meet U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) own applicable standards. In 2025, Cal DOJ found that many of these conditions worsened as the current administration’s mass deportation campaign led to overcrowding and strained resources at new and existing facilities. Tragically, there were six deaths of detained individuals between September 2025 and March 2026, four at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center and two at the Imperial Regional Detention Center—the highest number since Cal DOJ started conducting AB 103 reviews. These deaths raise serious concerns about these facilities’ ability to safely detain a growing detainee population and highlight the need for greater accountability and oversight. For its fifth report, Cal DOJ inspected all seven facilities active in 2025 in California operating pursuant to contracts with ICE, including the newly opened California City Detention Facility: 1. Adelanto ICE Processing Center
(Adelanto) operated by The GEO Group, Inc. (GEO Group) in Adelanto; 2. Desert View Annex (Desert View) operated by GEO Group in Adelanto; 3. Golden State Annex (Golden State) operated by GEO Group in McFarland; 4. Mesa Verde ICE Processing Facility (Mesa Verde) operated by GEO Group in Bakersfield; 5. Imperial Regional Detention Facility (Imperial) operated by Management & Training Corporation (MTC) in Calexico; 6. Otay Mesa Detention Center (Otay Mesa) operated by CoreCivic in San Diego; and 7. California City Detention Facility (Cal City) operated by CoreCivic in California City.
Most of these facilities are located in remote parts of the state that are difficult for family members and attorneys to access. An eighth facility, Central Valley Annex, began to hold ICE detainees in April 2026 as
Cal DOJ was finalizing publication of this report. This report does not include a review of conditions at
Central Valley Annex. Since Cal DOJ’s 2023 inspections, there has been an unprecedented surge of the population in civil immigration detention facilities within the state, which grew approximately 162% from 2,303 detainees at the time of Cal DOJ’s 2023 site visits to 6,028 at the time of site visits in 2025. This population
growth included a notable increase of about 379% in the number of female detainees, from 170 at the time of Cal DOJ’s 2023 site visits to 815 as of the 2025 visits. Notably, many of these individuals had no criminal history and were classified as low security, a significant divergence from our 2023 findings.
