After federal agents detained undocumented workers from three workplaces in downtown Los Angeles nearly two weeks ago, many Southern California families are worried about being distraught with illness, as they haven’t heard from their loved ones.
According to lawmakers in Southern California, many of them are located in Adelanto, east of Los Angeles, about 60 miles east of Los Angeles, and they find they can’t make a call to their family or lawyers.
Officials representing the Southern California area said they could meet some of the ingredients filmed during the raid as five members of the U.S. House of Representatives were finally able to tour the Adelanto Processing Center on Tuesday after being kicked out nearly two weeks ago.
Judichu, a district that includes parts of Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley, said she and her colleagues saw the kitchen, medical facilities and retention cells inside the detention center.
“On the phone, (detainees) said they hadn’t changed clothes for 10 days. It wasn’t changing underwear,” she said. “They had the same towels they wash over and over.”
Chu said the man who claims he was taken from his shop can hear the man approached by a federal agent and then taken to a different detention facility.
“He was taken to the Metropolitan Detention Center, where he was not given 12 hours of food, nor could he contact his family or legal representatives, and he had no phone contact information until he went to the Santa Ana Detention Center during that period until he went to Adelant,” Chu explained. “That’s not right.”
A longtime Democrat also said the population of the Adelanto Processing Center has moved from 350 to 1,200 over the 10 days of June. Not all detainees were arrested from downtown La Reid, but some of them were sent to Texas and Florida.
Rep. Mark Takano, who represents the Inland Imperial District, said he was arrested when the DACA recipient and his family appeared in court.
Councilman Sydney Kamlager Dove took over the South La District after Karen Bass, then council room, resigned to run for mayor of Los Angeles.
“I have a constitutionalist who is deaf, muted, picked up on ice and transported,” she said. “We’re still looking for him.”
For those looking for a loved one, Chu encouraged them to ask for help as various nonprofit organizations such as the ACLU, Chirla, immigrant defenders, and some consulate offices are trying to track who was taken and where they were sent.
“They are ready and willing to help. Don’t hesitate,” Chu said. She promised to follow up on what she saw and heard, urging the detention center to deal with “inhumane circumstances.”
US Immigration Customs Enforcement did not respond to NBC Los Angeles’ requests for comment.
“Support services are being monitored by ice and other organizations within the Department of Homeland Security to ensure strict compliance with ice detention standards,” the GEO Group, which owns the ice processing centre, said in a statement.
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