Described as “a river of cruelty,” the California City Detention Facility under ICE is the focus of a new pro bono putative class action filed by Keker, Van Nest & Peters, alongside the Prison Law Office, the ACLU, and the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice, challenging the inhumane and unconstitutional conditions at California’s largest immigration detention center.
In its article, the Daily Journal reported that the complaint claims the defendants have failed to meet the "basic human needs" of the people they detain. More than 800 people are currently detained in the facility, a shuttered state prison in the Mojave Desert that ICE reopened this summer under a $130 million annual contract with CoreCivic.
"All these people are retained under civil law. It's not criminal law," said Keker partner and associate general counsel Steven Ragland. "And yet, they're being treated in many cases worse than people who are detained for very, very serious crimes in the penal system."
The lawsuit, Gomez Ruiz et al. v. ICE et al., filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, says that ICE and the Department of Homeland Security have subjected people detained under civil immigration law to “dire” and degrading conditions. The complaint details failures to provide for basic human needs, including adequate food and water, clothing, and medical care, along with a lack of disability accommodations and access to attorneys and loved ones.
The lawsuit aligns with Keker‘s commitment to pro bono advocacy and holding government agencies accountable for unlawful practices.
"We were asked to help, and we just had to help,” Ragland said. “We're well over our pro bono budget this year as expected given the results of the election, and we're not going to stay silent in the face of these sorts of things."
Keker attorneys working on this case include Ragland, Cody Harris, and Carlos Martinez.
Read the Daily Journal article here. (subscription required)