When I wake in the morning, there are no signs of the new day. There are no windows in my cell, and a light has been on all night. Like one long nightmare, it can be difficult to keep track of when one day ends and the next begins. And so life goes inside the California City Detention Facility. It feels like the land of the living dead.
Outside, miles of desert stretch between me and the nearest town. This privately run immigration detention center — the largest in California — opened illegally last August as the Trump administration rapidly expanded detention.
Having been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for nearly two years, I’ve come to learn that this sort of lawlessness lies at the core of the U.S. detention system. The rule of law does not exist inside detention for me or the countless others I’ve met during my time in ICE custody.
When I entered the country in 2024 from Belize, I was fleeing persecution. Where I expected to find refuge and due process in the U.S., I’ve instead found myself imprisoned. When I claimed asylum at the border, I was subject to mandatory detention, pursuant to Section 1225 of U.S. Code.
Over the last two years, I’ve been transferred between three detention centers: first at the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego, then at Golden State Annex in McFarland and finally here in California City. All of these detention facilities have in common a fundamental disregard for our health and well-being.
At California City, I have both witnessed and personally experienced negligent treatment and the routine violation of our rights. I assume much of the misconduct here stems from private prison corporations’ motivation to make as much money as possible. When a corporation — in this case, CoreCivic — sees us as dollar signs instead of people, it’s easy to understand why they cut corners at the expense of our safety.
Here at California City, when I suffered from tonsillitis, I was never taken to the medical unit despite my repeated requests for treatment. Most others I have met along the way have also faced medical neglect, and many have been left worse off than myself.
Last November, when I stood up for others’ medical care — including those in need of urgent treatment and medications for conditions like heart disease and diabetes — I and several others were sent to solitary confinement in retaliation.
As lawsuits and investigations have demonstrated, severe medical neglect in ICE custody is a systemic problem. This medical neglect is particularly worrisome amid a record-high numbers of deaths occurring across ICE’s detention system. The death rate has more than doubled under the current administration, according to a recent Reuters analysis.
In response to a lawsuit brought by some of us inside, a federal court ordered ICE to provide basic healthcare like access to emergency services, specialists and prescription medications. As far as I can tell as a detained person, ICE and prison officials have so far failed to comply with this order.
Medical neglect is not our only problem here. CoreCivic, like other for-profit prison operators, pays detained people $1 a day to do cleaning jobs around the facility and other work. This is the only way many people can buy essential food and hygiene products from the commissary — yet another way CoreCivic profits.
There is little programming here, and our freedom of movement is severely restricted. We often spend more time each day inside our 8-by-8 cell than outside of it. The temperature goes from one extreme to the next, either too hot or too cold. Sometimes we are allowed up to one hour outside in the yard, but being in the middle of the desert under the hot sun, even this outdoor time provides little relief.
Recently, the detention center has been stricken by a drug problem. I fear it is a matter of when, not if, someone is the victim of a fatal overdose. And those in need of rehab are sent to solitary confinement — a dangerous response that seems to be used for any and every problem that staff refuse to address. On top of that, officers often work 18-hour shifts. CoreCivic and ICE have created a precarious environment in which we are all pushed to our limits.
Simply put, this place is hell on Earth. I have come to believe that everything here is designed to break you, to make you sign your own deportation order and give up on your case.
When Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff visited the facility in January, we were forced to clean the facility before their arrival. I told them of the widespread mistreatment occurring. In the months since, nothing has changed; if anything, conditions have only gotten worse. This month, ICE officially relaxed standards and barred prison operators from paying more than $1 a day, a policy shift widely seen as a favor to the companies as they face lawsuits.
The problems here reflect the broader injustices of the U.S. immigration system, if we can still call it that. This system today is first and foremost a deportation machine. Pathways to safety and citizenship for people like me have all but been eliminated.
I now understand detention is not the only problem.
Yes, we should end the practice of immigration detention and shut down the California City Detention Facility for good. We should also remove the punitive policies that criminalize the very act of migration. How much further along would this country be if the tens of billions of dollars spent on detention and border security were instead used to humanely welcome newcomers and to meet real needs in the United States such as good jobs, housing and education?
When I fled Belize, I believed it important to stop corruption in my country. Now facing a perverse system again, I am continuing this fight from behind bars in a new country. In my time here, I have filed numerous habeas petitions — a way to challenge one’s detention through the courts — resulting in the freedom of several people who were once caged here.
I will continue to advocate for myself and others, alongside allies beyond these walls. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from — we all have the right to live and be treated with fairness and basic human dignity.
Brady Tillett is detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the California City Detention Facility in Kern County.
