A team of guards wearing gas masks and helmets forced detainees into their cells in June 2020 at the Adelanto ICE detention center.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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RIVERSIDE, CA — Video footage of a use of force incident, along with more than 50 other records have been released nearly two months after Public Justice’s motion to intervene in Hugo Gonzalez, et al. v. The GEO Group, Inc., et al. was granted. The records are currently available on PACER by searching case number 2:22-cv-04014. The unsealed video footage has been manually filed with the court, and while it is now publicly accessible, it can only be viewed at the clerk’s office in Riverside.
The case challenges a major use of force and deployment of chemical agents at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, a notorious immigration detention complex operated by the private corrections giant GEO Group. Despite the First Amendment right of access to court records, the records were previously sealed and unavailable to the public.
The records unsealed provide footage, emails, reports and logs of a use of force incident that occurred in June 2020 and impacted the roughly 100 people detained in the units at the time. Public Justice represented independent local newsroom Los Angeles Public Press, local news cooperative The Southlander, the First Amendment Coalition and the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice as intervenors asserting the public’s right to access these important materials.
“We succeeded in unsealing records that show the public how GEO responds when the people — that the public pays GEO to care for — dare to demand humane treatment,” said Jacqueline Arkush, Justice Catalyst Fellow at Public Justice. “They show how GEO fails to enforce their own policies and the minimum standards set by our government, which GEO agreed to abide by in exchange for $120 million dollars of taxpayer money. The public has a right to see what is being done in their name, on their behalf, and at their expense, both at Adelanto and in the courthouse.”
“It’s affirming to see the court uphold the public’s right to know how private agents contracted by the government, like GEO, behave when they think no one is looking,” said Matt Tinoco, Founder & CEO of LA Public Press. “We are glad we intervened in this case, and look forward to pursuing more work advancing the First Amendment through an era of need. These records shed more light on the abuses and norms of the growing immigrant detention sector, now flooded with new resources from the federal government.”
“Use of force incidents have frequently been swept under the rug at immigrant detention centers like Adelanto. It is far too easy for agents of the state to abuse their power and harm vulnerable populations with impunity,” said Morgan Keith, an investigative reporter and co-founder of The Southlander. “The release of these records sets a precedent that, even after time has passed, these kinds of violations cannot be ignored. Inhumane treatment and conditions persist behind the walls of Adelanto, and our hope is that the unsealing of these records sends a message that no injustice remains in the darkness for long.”
“This release pulls back the curtain on a system that has operated with far too little transparency and accountability for far too long,” said Esmeralda Santos, Lead Organizer at the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice. “The records show what happens when a private prison corporation like GEO Group is allowed to wield extraordinary power over the lives of people in immigration detention with inadequate oversight and few meaningful consequences. No corporation should have unchecked authority to use force against people in its custody while hiding evidence from the public. For the people who endured these abuses, justice has been delayed, and for many, it has yet to come. But making these records public is an essential step toward exposing the reality inside Adelanto and ensuring that those in power cannot continue to operate in secrecy.”