With a packed chamber and a Zoom room that reached a peak of over 90 viewers, the California City City Council members spent hours listening to more than 50 people voice their opposition to the CoreCivic Detention Center, which is set to open in California City.
The proposed facility marks a significant expansion of federal immigration enforcement infrastructure in California. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has partnered with CoreCivic, a private prison contractor that already operates several detention centers across the state, to convert a shuttered 2,500-bed prison in California City into what would become the largest immigrant detention center in California.
Originally constructed by CoreCivic in 1999 as a federal prison, the site later operated as a state prison from 2013 until its closure in March 2024.
Among the many speakers who addressed the California City Council was Reverend Deborah Lee, who urged the council to consider the moral consequences of allowing the CoreCivic Detention Center to operate.
“Our faith traditions call us to be our brothers and sisters’ keepers,” she said. “It calls us to do everything that we can to prevent harm and suffering.”
Lee described a decade of ministering to families impacted by immigration detention, painting a grim picture of what she called preventable suffering.
“Over 20 people have died in California detention centers,” she said. “There is systemic abuse, medical neglect, sexual abuse. So much harm has been created, and we’re asking that this city not participate in that.”
Liz Palencia, speaking on behalf of Building Healthy Communities – Kern, shared the firsthand impact immigration enforcement has had on local families.
“Over the past seven months, our organization, BHC, has distributed more than 2,000 food boxes to immigrant families who have been directly affected by the increased immigration enforcement in Kern,” she said. “These are hardworking residents, many of whom have lived in our region for decades, but who now live in fear, too afraid to leave their homes or take their children to school.”
Palencia described how fear has gripped entire households, particularly children who are now too terrified to go outside.
“And now, California City is contemplating partnering with a for-profit company whose business model depends on detaining more people,” she said.
She acknowledged the city’s interest in the potential economic benefits of the project—including 150 support roles and 400 corrections officer positions—but urged council members to weigh those against the broader human and ethical costs. Palencia pointed to well-documented issues in ICE detention centers run by private companies like CoreCivic, including unsafe conditions, medical neglect, and abuse.
“A California DOJ report confirms chronic deficiencies in mental health care, suicide prevention, and use-of-force oversight inside these facilities,” she said. “These installations also contribute to more deportations and more broken families in our community. Instead of a detention center, California City deserves investments and jobs that build our future rather than detain our people.”
Despite the public opposition, California City Mayor Marquette Hawkins stated the City has limited power to intervene. Hawkins explained that California City is expected to finalize water and sewage rates with CoreCivic next month—an administrative step necessary for the facility to begin operating.
The CoreCivic facility would be the largest ICE detention center in California. Still, many community members expressed deep concern about the treatment of immigrants and the conditions inside such centers. Their fears were echoed throughout the night by speaker after speaker.
Brian Zady, a student at UCLA and member of Critical Resistance, traveled from Los Angeles to voice his concerns about the potential consequences of opening the CoreCivic facility. Zady said ICE raids are already escalating and disproportionately affecting immigrant and student communities.
“I drove three hours to get out here because there are these military-style immigration raids,” he said. “They’re targeting people in our community. They’re sleeping out in front of churches and schools, and when we’re approaching them and asking who you are and why you’re taking people, they’re not identifying themselves.”
Zady told councilmembers that detention centers don’t just lock up people, they destabilize communities.
“Towns or counties with detention centers are also facing increasing rates of ICE raids,” he said. “This is something y’all should be worried about too.”
He also pushed back against CoreCivic’s economic promises, citing other rural communities like McFarland that were left disillusioned after similar facilities failed to bring long-term jobs or prosperity.
Zady pointed to a study identifying the former California City Correctional Facility as one of the worst in the state for climate hazards. “There is exposure to extreme levels of heat for people caged there,” he said. “There’s also a long history of abuse, wrongful deaths.”
