Preliminary injunction requires the government to provide basic necessities, including adequate medical care, safe food and water, and humane conditions, and appoints independent monitors to oversee compliance; court also provisionally certifies a class and disability subclass of everyone detained at the facility
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LOS ANGELES, July 17, 2026—A federal judge granted, in part, a preliminary injunction ordering the government to immediately remedy unconstitutional conditions at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, and provisionally certified a class action on behalf of everyone detained at the facility. The injunction and class certification order were sought by individuals represented by Public Counsel, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef), and Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP in their class action lawsuit against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The lawsuit directs ICE and DHS to take immediate, concrete steps to remedy ongoing constitutional and statutory violations before more people are irreparably harmed. At least four people have died in ICE custody while detained at Adelanto since September 2025, and many families say their loved ones’ medical needs were delayed or ignored while detained.
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The ruling, issued by U.S. District Judge Sunshine Sykes of the Central District of California, finds that the government is likely violating the constitutional rights of people detained at Adelanto, a facility privately operated by the GEO Group in the California high desert that holds nearly 1,500 people awaiting civil immigration proceedings.
The court’s order requires the facility to immediately provide basic necessities, including clean drinking water, adequate food and sanitation, privacy in restrooms and showers, temperature-appropriate clothing and bedding, and daily outdoor recreation. It also limits headcounts, restricts administrative segregation to documented security concerns or a detainee’s own request, and orders Defendants to file a remedial plan within 14 days addressing medical care and disability accommodations facility-wide. Two independent monitors will oversee compliance through unannounced inspections and monthly public reports, and detainees will have a confidential grievance system to reach them directly. Defendants are barred from retaliating against anyone who raises concerns or participates in the case.
The court also provisionally certified an “Adelanto Class” of all people who are now, or in the future will be, detained at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, as well as a “Disability Subclass” of class members with disabilities within the meaning of the Rehabilitation Act, for purposes of the preliminary injunction. Public Counsel, ImmDef, CHIRLA, and Willkie Farr & Gallagher were provisionally appointed as class counsel.
The group first filed suit in January 2026, challenging a detention system they described as cruel, inhumane, and degrading—one where people are denied critical medical care and disability accommodations, subject to punitive isolation, and forced to live in unsanitary conditions. On March 10, 2026, the coalition filed a motion for a preliminary injunction supported by more than two dozen sworn declarations from current and formerly detained individuals, legal advocates, and medical and corrections experts, providing the most detailed public account yet of daily life inside Adelanto. Together, they painted a portrait of systematic neglect: people with serious medical conditions going weeks without medication or care, food described as rotten and inedible, dirty drinking water, mold on the walls, and a pattern of retaliation against detained people who spoke up. Plaintiffs renewed their motions for class certification and a preliminary injunction, and the government opposed—the motions were heard together on July 10, 2026. The ruling, which does not resolve the underlying case, requires the government to act immediately to remedy these conditions while the litigation continues toward a final judgment.
“This ruling sends a clear message: no detention facility in this country is above the law,” said Rebecca Brown, Supervising Attorney at Public Counsel. “The court has recognized what we have known all along, that the conditions inside Adelanto are inhumane. This order requires the government to do what it should have done from the start: provide basic human necessities and life-saving medical care to the people in its custody. We will continue fighting until every person at Adelanto is treated with dignity and every provision of this order is fully enforced.”
“This ruling makes clear that the administration’s misrepresentations about conditions inside the Adelanto ICE prison collapse under the weight of the evidence,” said Alvaro M. Huerta, Director of Litigation and Advocacy at Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef). “Behind Adelanto’s barbed-wire fences, people have endured conditions so egregious that four individuals have lost their lives there in the last six months alone. Make no mistake, those deaths were preventable. We’re grateful that a federal court has acted to ensure that others detained at Adelanto will now have basic protections and receive adequate medical care. We celebrate this ruling even while we mourn the pain this administration continues to cause so many families.”
“This preliminary injunction is a critical step toward accountability,” said Angelica Salas, Executive Director, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA). “The court has made clear that the conditions at the Adelanto detention center fall below the basic standards our Constitution demands. No one—regardless of immigration status—should be subjected to inhumane treatment or deprived of their fundamental rights. This ruling affirms what impacted communities have been saying for years: dignity, safety, and due process are not optional, and we will keep fighting until those rights are fully upheld.”
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