Rep. Judy Chu first entered the Immigration Detention Center in Adelanto in 2014, and the situation was bad.
Things weren’t that good when she returned to her private property in the Mojave Desert last week.
“It’s just scandalous as to how it’s not improving,” she told me.
The truth is said, but conditions can get worse just because of pure numbers and confusion. This makes it even more important to be willing to choose leaders like Chu and put themselves at the forefront to truly voicelessly and truly voicelessly.
With tens of thousands of immigrants chased and imprisoned throughout the United States, overseeing their detention is becoming increasingly difficult and important.
Shortly after an unpublished visit to Adelanto by CHU and four other lawmakers a few days ago, ICE announced new rules that would further restrict lawmakers’ access to the facility. Chu and others call these new curbs on access illegal, but they could still be enforced unless the courts are otherwise subject to the rules.
The narrow, fragile lines of the Judicial Branch are retained for now.
But even families and lawyers struggle to track down those who disappear into these facilities. Many of them, including Adelanto – are run by private, for-profit businesses that have raised millions of dollars from the government.
Geo Group, the public company that operates Adelanto, has reported revenues of over $600 million so far this year, forecasting $31 million in full capacity in additional annual revenues from Adelanto. According to a report from the California Department of Justice, regardless of how many detainees there are in the facility, Doge may want to look into the fact that GEOs are often paid for “guaranteed minimums.” It sounds like a waste.
When the Trump administration launched an attack on Los Angeles a few weeks ago, Chu began receiving calls from her members seeking help. She represents Altadena, Pasadena and other regions with a large population of immigrants, and as the daughter of immigrants, she says.
Her mom came here from China as a 19-year-old bride. Chu’s dad was born in the United States.
“I feel a very heavy responsibility to change things for them and change things for the better,” she said. “I’m surrounded by immigrants every day. This is an immigrant district. My relatives are immigrants. My friend is immigrants. Yes, my life is immigrants.”
A few days ago, she tried to visit the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles. Many of the recent protests have focused there, with many people detained in Los Angeles reportedly being held first. She had heard people would stay there longer, even though it wasn’t meant to be more than a stopover.
“The fact that these attacks are very serious and very serious makes it very obvious to me that they don’t treat detainees in a humane way. That’s what I want to know,” she told me.
But there’s no luck. Authorities pulled her away at the door.
A few days later, she decided to show up in Adelanto without notice, her right as a Congressman.
Guess: No luck.
The officer there closed the gate, she said, and didn’t even talk to her.
“It was incredible to be locked out like that,” she said. “We cried out that we were members of the council. We signed up saying that we were members of the council. In fact, there was a car parked a few feet away in the facility. The person’s job was to look at us.”
Certainly wow.
Without losing, she returned a few days later when the gate was unlocked. This time she drove straight inside without asking for permission.
Her staff member said, “I purposely dropped me off in the lobby before I knew we were there,” she said.
She went out to the main entrance and was allowed to enter.
“The ice agent said, ‘Oh, well, we thought you were a protester before,'” she said. “And that’s not true, taking into account all of our screams and signs. But anyway.”
She was armed with the names of people in her district, who were being detained, and she asked them to meet. She started talking to some of them, but everyone wanted her help. At the beginning of the year, Adelanto retained only a handful of people and was nearly closed by court orders during Covid-19. Currently, it holds around 1,100, and can take up to about 1,900.
“These detainees were jumping up and down to get our attention,” she said. What they told her was both disturbing and casually cruel. They do not have the ability to change clothes for 10 days. Dirty shower. There is no access to the phone as a phone number is required. Also, no matter how many times you request it, it will not be concrete. You don’t know how long they will be held or what will happen next.
“It could be a few weeks,” she said. “It could take years.”
It’s gone.
“That’s scary,” she said. “And that’s tearing our community apart.”
Certainly, immigration is undocumented, especially in Southern California – is intertwined with the structure of our lives and our community.
This is why people like Chu are so important to what happens next. Our lawmakers have taken little action and little action against the ongoing erosion of civil rights and legal norms. Chu has spent 10 years bringing accountability to immigration detention and knows this sleazy industry better than what extent. It’s work that many people don’t notice, but it’s important for families whose loved ones have been scooped up and disappeared.
“These are not the criminals and rapists Trump has promised to drive him away,” Chu said. “These are hardworking people who make a living and do their best to support their families. These are your friends and neighbors, and as we saw, American citizens have also been arrested.
Or her. Other lawmakers were arrested and charged with trying to enter an East Coast detention center, while Sen. Alex Padilla was recently knocked out and handcuffed for interrupting a press conference by Homeland Security Secretary Christie Noem.
We are in an age where we often encounter questions such as lmao, silence, or even violence from authorities and everyday champions. Propaganda and lies have become norms, and few have the capacity to testify to the truth within places of state power, such as detention centers.
So, it is an age where people stand up in the face of increased fear and chaos, which is the difference between who has disappeared for so long to everyone and being discovered.
Even if it’s within Adelanto.
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