Michelle Arkin has been fasting intermittently in support of immigrants on a hunger strike at two Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers in San Bernardino County.
This week, the Granada Hills resident is fasting again to raise awareness about the conditions and inhumane treatment of the detainees at the for-profit detention centers in Adelanto, a small city in the high desert, 85 miles northeast of Los Angeles.
“I’m fasting in solidarity with those who are inside the detention centers and are unable to speak,” said Arkin, a member of the grassroots group No Concentration Camps California.
Arkin was one of a dozen activists from various faith and community organizations who began the solidarity fast and vigil on Monday, June 8, in front of the U.S. Courthouse on Spring Street in downtown LA. They’re calling for an investigation into the Adelanto ICE Processing Center and the Desert View Annex, which are located next to each other. Together, both facilities have a capacity of 2,690 detainees, making them the largest in the state and the nation.
Approximately 40 detainees have been on a hunger strike and labor boycott since mid-May, demanding improved facility conditions, access to clean food and water and adequate medical care. The for-profit detention center is operated by the GEO Group.
Targeting the First Assistant U.S. Attorney
“We are here specifically because Bilal Essayli … the U.S. attorney, who hasn’t even been legally appointed, is responsible for the Adelanto prison and he should stop those detentions and those awful conditions right now,” Rabbi Ari A. Cohen, a professor at the American Jewish University and a member of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE Justice), said at a news conference in front of the U.S. Courthouse.
Located at the corner of Temple and Spring streets, the federal building houses the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, led by Essayli.
“Since mid-May, people held in Adelanto ICE Processing Center and the Desert View Annex have refused food in protest of the horrific conditions and the death inside those walls,” said Episcopal priest Jamie Edwards of St. Stevens Church in Hollywood and co-chair of the Sacred Resistance for the Diocese of LA. “The GEO Group, the company that profits from their pain and captivity, would have us believe that the hunger strike is not even happening.”
GEO Group Denies Hunger Strike Began
Immigration authorities and GEO Group representatives initially denied that a hunger strike was taking place at Adelanto. Edwards said that earlier this month, elected representatives visited the facilities to see for themselves and met with detainees involved in the ongoing protest. Some hunger strikers suffered reprisals for talking with the politicians, according to the priest.
“We’ve heard reports of retaliation, men thrown into solitary confinement, denied water for hours, now threatened with transfer to punish them for daring to speak,” he said. “Those who are suffering inside Adelanto’s walls have offered up the only thing that they have left – their own bodies.”
One of Edwards’ parishioners gave a firsthand account of what life is like inside Adelanto. He identified himself only as “Filemon.” The father of three, who was detained at Adelanto, described the cruel conditions. Detainees, he said, had to sleep on cramped, cold floors, often without a blanket.
“The food they received was cold and rotten,” Edwards reiterated. “Filemon became ill during his time there, but didn’t receive any medical attention. The worst part of his experience, however, was that the ICE agents and the staff at the Adelanto facility did not see him and the others as human beings. They viewed them as animals.”
Four Detainees Have Died at Adelanto
Filemon was ultimately released from Adelanto, he believes, due to the unwavering support of his fierce indigenous Zapotec community, his church and others who refused to be silent, according to Edwards. However, not all detainees have been as fortunate as Filemon. “Some people never come home at all, and not only because of deportations,” the priest said. “In Adelanto alone, four people have died since January 2025.”
Photos of the late detainees were displayed at the press conference, with their names and details of their deaths.
Irving Cruz Nape died in March of this year, shortly after being released from the Adelanto Processing Center, where he had not received treatment for the warning symptoms of a heart attack. Later that same month, Jose Guadalupe Ramos Solano died in his bunk after suffering from overheating and difficulty breathing.
Alberto Gutierrez Reyes passed away in February at a nearby hospital, following a lack of medical care at Adelanto after experiencing chest pain. Gabriel Garcia Aviles died last October at a local hospital from cardiac arrest due to alcohol withdrawal.
Acknowledging Keith Porter
Also on display was a photo of Keith Porter Jr., who was never in detention but was killed by an ICE agent. Porter was a U.S. citizen who grew up in LA but had moved to Northridge. He was shot and killed by an off-duty ICE agent who took issue with Porter for firing his gun into the air in celebration on New Year’s Eve.
Nationwide, there have been 67 deaths linked to ICE detentions, according to Mary Linda Moss from the Northeast LA Alliance for Democracy. She reported that these deaths include instances where individuals died from sepsis due to untreated infections and complications from diabetes resulting from a lack of proper medical care or not being given their medications while in ICE custody.
In one case, a blind man in Minnesota was released without his family being informed, and he subsequently died from exposure to the cold. Moss also pointed to the tragic case of four Haitian women who, fearing a return to their homeland, were deported, only to later be found decapitated in a river.
Moss criticized Essayli for failing to open investigations into the Adelanto ICE facilities and the deaths of detainees. “We are insisting that they investigate and … make sure that no more deaths happen,” she said.
ICE Detention Centers Are “Concentration Camps”
Moss described the for-profit detention centers as “concentration camps.” “We use that term because that is what these places are,” she said.
“If you look to history, you will see that is what happens in these places. First of all, there’s no due process. None of these people should be in these facilities,” she said.
“We will remind First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bilal Essayli of all the detainee deaths in California and the injustices surrounding them,” said Guillermo Torres, director of programs for immigration with CLUE Justice. “He has done nothing to hold GEO Group accountable or to address ICE policies that violate the rights of immigrants and their due process.”
Janet McKeithen, a minister at the Church in Ocean Park in Santa Monica, called for an end to immigration raids and the mistreatment of detainees.
McKeithen also demanded that the detainees currently on hunger strikes in Adelanto and other detainees who speak out not be punished with solitary confinement or transferred elsewhere.
“We can’t let this stand,” she said. “ICE needs to stop picking people up off the street and throwing them away.”
Additional groups participating in this action include the Shut Down Adelanto Coalition, the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice and the California Pacific Conference Immigration Strategy Group.
The solidarity fast and vigil in front of the U.S. Courthouse is expected to end this Friday, June 12.