CALIFORNIA CITY, California — Immigrant detainees at California’s largest U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility have reported shortages and delays in medical services, while a court-appointed monitor found the center failed to provide adequate healthcare and violated a federal court order, according to a report filed in July.
Dr. Muthusamy Anandkumar, appointed by U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney to assess healthcare at the California City Detention Facility, found deficiencies across all eight areas specified by the court, including staffing, medical assessments, access to specialists, emergency services, continuity of care, medications and the system for requesting medical attention.
The monitor’s review included a three-day inspection, interviews with more than a dozen staff members and 40 detainees, and examination of 141 medical records and thousands of pages of documents provided by ICE and CoreCivic, the private company operating the facility.
Anandkumar said the facility lacked a reliable system for consistently providing adequate healthcare, creating risks of immediate and long-term harm. The report identified delayed or missed medical assessments, inadequate treatment, delays in administering medication and gaps in follow-up care. It also found that staffing shortages affected the facility’s ability to manage detainees with complex medical needs.
The findings followed a February order from Chesney requiring the federal government to provide constitutionally adequate medical care at the facility. The order followed a lawsuit brought by detained immigrants alleging inadequate healthcare and other poor conditions.
California officials had previously raised concerns about healthcare staffing at the facility. A June report from California Attorney General Rob Bonta said state inspectors had found crisis-level healthcare understaffing, denial of access to outside medical specialists and other violations of ICE detention standards during inspections conducted in late 2025.
The Department of Homeland Security has said ICE detainees receive necessary medical care and that its facilities are routinely inspected. CoreCivic said it was reviewing the monitor’s findings and remained committed to the health and safety of people in its care.
The California City facility, a former state prison with capacity for 2,560 detainees, began receiving ICE detainees in August 2025. The court-appointed monitoring and litigation over healthcare conditions remain ongoing.
