--- title: "ICE says Adelanto already meets much of a judge's order and is appealing the rest" description: "Two weeks after a federal judge ordered clean water, edible food, four hours of daily yard time and working medical care at the Adelanto immigration detention center in San Bernardino County, the government filed its remediation plan. It says much of the order is already satisfied, asks the court to adjust part of it, and argues that the agency cannot be held responsible for a facility run by a private contractor." category: "California" category_url: https://herald.la/category/california author: "Valeria Ortiz" published: 2026-08-01T01:58:00.000Z updated: 2026-08-01T01:58:00.000Z canonical: https://herald.la/article/ice-says-adelanto-already-meets-much-of-a-judge-s-order-and-is-appealing-the-res tags: ["adelanto", "immigration", "ice", "geo-group", "courts", "san-bernardino-county"] --- # ICE says Adelanto already meets much of a judge's order and is appealing the rest Two weeks after a federal judge ordered clean water, edible food, four hours of daily yard time and working medical care at the Adelanto immigration detention center in San Bernardino County, the government filed its remediation plan. It says much of the order is already satisfied, asks the court to adjust part of it, and argues that the agency cannot be held responsible for a facility run by a private contractor. The Adelanto ICE Processing Center sits about 90 miles from downtown Los Angeles, in the high desert of San Bernardino County. It is run for the federal government by the GEO Group, a private prison company. On July 16 a federal judge decided conditions there were bad enough to order the government to fix them, and gave it 14 days to say how. That plan landed on July 30. What it contains, and what it leaves out, is now the fight. ## What the judge ordered U.S. District Judge Sunshine Suzanne Sykes issued a preliminary injunction covering the daily texture of life inside the facility. Detainees must have around-the-clock access to clean drinking water and meals with enough calories, soap and hygiene products at no cost, blankets and clothing suited to the temperature, and a facility cleaned daily with mold identified and removed, [CalMatters reported](https://calmatters.org/justice/2026/07/judge-adelanto-conditions-injunction/). The order also sets at least four hours of outdoor yard time a day; family visits during business hours with no time limit and no restriction on physical contact such as hugging or holding hands; and at least two headcounts a day, one overnight and one in daylight, to confirm each detainee is present and in what condition. Isolation is barred except where there is a risk to life or the detainee asks for it. Two independent monitors were appointed for the life of the lawsuit, with a lockbox only they can open so detainees can file grievances in English or Spanish. The underlying case is a class action brought on behalf of people held at Adelanto by the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights and Public Counsel, [according to LAist](https://laist.com/news/criminal-justice/adelanto-lawsuit-detention-ice-government-response). The complaint described a facility that had gone from nearly empty 18 months earlier to over capacity, with too few staff, water the plaintiffs called "murky and dirty," improperly cooked food, and failures in urgent medical care and specialty referrals. A California Attorney General's inspection in July 2025 found that almost every person interviewed complained about the food. Four people have died at Adelanto since September 2025. One of them, 52-year-old Jose Ramos-Solano, died of COVID-19 pneumonia on March 25, 2026. His wife, Antonia Tovar, blames the facility's medical care. "What happened there was medical negligence. They killed him there," she told [Reason](https://reason.com/2026/07/20/a-man-died-of-covid-at-this-california-detention-center-a-judge-just-ordered-sweeping-improvements-there/), which also quotes a lawyer for the family calling the delay in getting him to a hospital "extremely, shockingly delayed." ## What the government filed The remediation plan tells the court that several ordered items are already in place, including timely diagnostic testing, uninterrupted access to prescribed medication, and notice to detainees of their rights as patients, [LAist reported](https://laist.com/news/criminal-justice/adelanto-lawsuit-detention-ice-government-response). Where it does not claim compliance, it asks for adjustments. The filing seeks to move the deadline for an initial health screening from 12 hours after arrival to eight, proposes a handwritten grievance process, and asks that GEO be directed to add staff to handle disability accommodations. The larger argument is jurisdictional. The government contends that it does not own, staff or run Adelanto, and so cannot be ordered to take over the daily management of a private contractor. A Department of Homeland Security attorney, Pushkal Mishra, made the same case at the earlier hearing, arguing the federal government cannot be held liable for GEO's conduct, [CalMatters reported](https://calmatters.org/justice/2026/07/judge-adelanto-conditions-injunction/). DHS declined to comment to that outlet. An ICE assistant field office director, Ryan Smith, said the injunction "frustrates and impedes" immigration enforcement, [according to LAist](https://laist.com/news/criminal-justice/adelanto-lawsuit-detention-ice-government-response). The government is separately appealing the July 16 order to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and has asked that the injunction be paused while that appeal proceeds. ## What the plaintiffs say is missing Lawyers for the detainees say the filing restates existing practice rather than changing it. Alison Steffel of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center said the plan "describes the same policies and practices that failed to prevent years of suffering inside Adelanto," and that "the existing systems failed to address the conditions that gave rise to this litigation," [she told LAist](https://laist.com/news/criminal-justice/adelanto-lawsuit-detention-ice-government-response). Their central objection is procedural: the plan sets out few concrete timelines and little mechanism for demonstrating that the immediate requirements, the water, the food, the cleaning, the yard time, are being met now. Carl Bergquist, general counsel at the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, said the plaintiffs will oppose the request to pause the injunction. The GEO Group's contract to operate Adelanto runs through 2029. Nothing in the current filings resolves the question the judge will now have to answer: whether the federal government can be ordered to fix a facility it pays for but says it does not run. ## Sources - [What is — and is not — in ICE's plan to improve conditions at privately run Adelanto](https://laist.com/news/criminal-justice/adelanto-lawsuit-detention-ice-government-response) - [Judge demands immigrants at Adelanto get clean water and medical care](https://calmatters.org/justice/2026/07/judge-adelanto-conditions-injunction/) - [A man died of COVID at this California detention center. A judge just ordered sweeping improvements there.](https://reason.com/2026/07/20/a-man-died-of-covid-at-this-california-detention-center-a-judge-just-ordered-sweeping-improvements-there/)