Rotten food, disease, isolation. What we know about conditions at the Adelanto ICE detention center
Imperfect Paradise
LAist Studios
4.5 • 535 Ratings
🗓️ 3 April 2026
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
At least four people have died in custody at an ICE detention facility in Adelanto, California. A recent lawsuit alleges that living conditions there are inhumane, and some are comparing the facility to "concentration camps." LAist Reporter Julia Barajas has been reporting on Adelanto and takes us there – she tells us about detainee experiences and how California lawmakers are trying to enforce accountability.
Read Julia’s full report at LAist.com.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, this is Larry Mantle of A. Talk. Our L.A. Estab lets you take your favorite programs with you wherever you go, live or on demand, your car, your home, or traveling the world. We're there with you. Download it now, the L.A. Estab. |
| 0:15.9 | The stories you need in less than five minutes. Catch the L Report with me, Austin Cross, in the mornings. |
| 0:22.4 | Nereida Moreno for the afternoon edition. |
| 0:24.8 | And me, Julia Paskin in the evening, the LA report wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:30.5 | Welcome to Imperfect Paradise. |
| 0:32.6 | I'm your host, Nereida Moreno. |
| 0:37.9 | As large-scale immigration raids and protests continue nationwide, the numbers are revealing. |
| 0:43.9 | ICE arrests tripled last year here in Los Angeles. |
| 0:47.5 | The number of people who have died in ICE custody across the U.S. have reached its highest |
| 0:51.9 | levels in decades. |
| 0:53.7 | And as the Trump administration pushes |
| 0:55.4 | to expand detention facilities, there are serious questions about the conditions inside these |
| 1:00.8 | immigrant prisons, the treatment of detainees, and the accountability of federal immigration |
| 1:05.7 | officials. This week on Imperfect Paradise, we continue our immigration coverage and take you to a federal ice facility in Adelanto, California, where multiple people have died in custody, the latest death just last week, with activists describing the center as a concentration camp. |
| 1:25.8 | L.A.ist reporter Julia Barajas has been following the effects of President |
| 1:29.3 | Trump's immigration policies on Southern California communities. She has been looking into the |
| 1:33.9 | Adelanto Ice Processing Center and is here with us now. Hey, Julia. Hi, Julia. Hi, Lerida. |
| 1:40.2 | Julia, help give us a better sense of where this detention center is located and what it's like there. |
| 1:46.6 | What do we know about Adelanto? |
| 1:49.0 | Yeah, so Adelanto is located in SoCal's Mojave Desert, about 85 miles away from downtown |
| 1:54.8 | L.A. out in the Inland Empire, the campus is made up of two facilities, including the Adelanto |
| 1:59.5 | Ice Processing Center and the Desert View Annex. |
... |
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