Dozens of California residents and advocates spoke at Tuesday’s California City Council meeting, criticizing the newly reopened immigration detention center in the Mojave Desert and raising concerns that the private company running it may lack proper permits.

The California City Detention Facility, about 100 miles north of Los Angeles and 65 miles east of Bakersfield, can hold up to 2,560 people, making it the largest immigration detention center in the state. Its opening comes as federal officials expand the number of beds available for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees. ICE currently holds about 3,600 people a day in six other facilities across California.

At the meeting, residents urged city leaders to prevent CoreCivic, the private prison company that owns the facility, from continuing operations.

Residents shared firsthand accounts of unsafe and inhumane conditions inside the CoreCivic-operated facility. A young girl who identified only as Monica, whose father is detained there, pleaded with council members to intervene.

“From what I’ve heard from my father, they don’t have water. They drink water from the sink, which I think contains lead,” Monica said. “At least four people have been hospitalized since they were transferred. One is still in the hospital. They don’t give their medications … and my daddy has an open knee and they still haven’t treated it.”

Advocates said detainees are being treated like criminals and denied basic rights. Jeannie Parent, coordinator with Kern Welcoming and Extending Solidarity to Immigrants (KWESI), described conditions inside the facility.

“First of all, people are not in dorms. They’re in cells as if they’re convicted criminals,” Parent said. “People have not gotten their medication. People with high blood pressure, heart disease, psych meds you don’t stop using your medication for a week. It has devastating consequences. They were forced to drink water from the sink and then the staff told them, do not drink that water. There are high levels of lead.”

Others joined the meeting via Zoom. Jose Hernandez, with the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity, interpreted for Angela Montoya, whose son is being held at the facility.

“My son just expressed to me that they are barely allowed to even go outside of their cells,” Hernandez translated. “They’re making it so uncomfortable to the point where they want them to just give up. We ask that you please help us … please just release them to us.”

Hernandez, who was previously detained at ICE facilities in California, also shared his own experiences of mistreatment while in custody, including sexual abuse during pat-downs, foreign objects in food trays, and dark or unsafe water.

“Please help these people who are going through these inhumane situations,” Hernandez said. “They shouldn’t be operating because they violate detention standards.”

Another mother, identified as Irene’s mother on the Zoom call, spoke through her daughter about not knowing where her son had been taken for days.

“My son was transferred to this place,” Irene’s mother said. “Through another call, he shared with me that this place was very dirty. They’re only allowed to leave their cells for 10 minutes. My son says there is no clean water to clean themselves. Please give us a solution because me, as a mother, I am worried about my son’s health.”

Several speakers also questioned whether the center was legally allowed to operate. Alejandra Garcia, a member of Building Healthy Communities Kern, told the council the facility’s opening raised both legal and moral concerns.

“We are at a crossroads that will define who we are for all future generations,” Garcia said. “The activation of this misplaced facility is a moral test, a legal crisis, and a question of who we choose to stand for whether we stand for people or for those who profit from detaining people.”

She said the facility holds immigrants, not criminals, and cited a lack of transparency in its opening. “This facility is for immigrants, for mothers and fathers, workers and students. People held in civil custody, not criminal custody, and their only offense is trying to build a better life for themselves,” Garcia said.