The Trump administration Friday prevented a U.S. Senator and two San Diego County supervisors from conducting inspections of the Otay Mesa Detention Center.
Initially, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents agreed to allow supervisors Paloma Aguirre and Terra Lawson Remer to inspect the federal immigration detention center.
It would have been the first such inspection allowed in California. However, when county officials arrived for the scheduled inspection Friday, the agency changed their minds, according to the supervisors, who are both Democrats.
“We gave them sufficient notice, we had personal emails clearing us to conduct the public health inspection,” Aguirre said. “Suddenly we were told we just got a call from the higher ups.”
The official explanation, according to the supervisors, was that local ICE officials initially approved the inspection but their national counterparts blocked it.
At one point, ICE agents at the detention center threatened to have the county supervisors arrested, Aguirre added.
Lawson-Remer said she plans to sue the Trump administration.
“We will be initiating litigation, ICE is in clear violation of the Health and Safety Code and they are refusing lawful oversight,” she said.
Earlier in the day, Dr. Sayone Thihalolipavan, the county’s Public Health Officer, was allowed into the facility, the county supervisors said. But ICE only granted him limited access — seeing just the facility’s kitchen and medical bays.
ICE staff prevented Thihalolipavan from reviewing medical records, copies of internal policies and procedures, or speaking with detainees in the general population area, the supervisors said.
Because access was so severely restricted, Thihalolipavan did not have enough information to conduct the health inspection, Lawson-Remer added.
“I am very deeply concerned,” she said. “This is a huge red flag.”
The supervisors said they are authorized to conduct inspections of the Otay Mesa facility under a relatively new section of California’s Health and Safety code. In 2024, a state law amended Health and Safety Code Section 101045 to specifically, “authorize a county or city health officer to investigate a private detention facility as they determine necessary.”
Separate from the county inspection, U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif) tried to conduct his own unannounced visit Friday afternoon — but ICE agents did not let him in.
Padilla called the episode, “beyond disappointing but sadly not surprising."
So far in the second Trump administration ICE has denied unannounced visits to all detention facilities, requiring lawmakers to give them a seven-day notice.
“It shouldn’t matter whether it’s advanced notice or not,” Padilla said.
The senator said he was specifically worried that detainees do not have adequate access to fresh food, clean drinking water or quality medical care. Padilla also said he will continue to visit federal detention centers - both with and without advanced notice - to pressure ICE into being more transparent.
A dozen Democratic lawmakers are currently suing the Trump administration, claiming the Department of Homeland Security is violating a provision of federal law that guarantees their access to federal detention facilities — even if that access is unannounced.
One lawmaker who did give notice was U.S. Rep. Mike Levin, D-49, who was allowed into Otay Mesa on Thursday. In an interview Friday, Levin said the advance notice allows operators of the privately run detention center to “sanitize the facilities.”
“You do the best you can knowing full well that they may be cleaning things up before you get there,” Levin said.
Levin said the detainees were confined to their sleeping quarters during his 3 p.m. visit Thursday and that he was able to see the library, chapel, mess hall and common areas, but nothing else.
ICE officials have previously blocked Levin and other representatives from conducting unannounced visits to other detention facilities, including the basement of the federal courthouse in downtown San Diego.
Rising detainee deaths
Friday’s standoff comes amid intensifying public backlash over the rising death toll of people detained in ICE's custody.
Last year, 32 ICE detainees died, the most since 2004 — and ICE is on pace to surpass that number this year. There have been eight in-custody deaths in detention centers nationwide as of Friday.
The Otay Mesa Detention Center is owned and operated by CoreCivic, a Tennessee-based private prison company that has received more than $269 million in funding from the Trump administration this fiscal year.
A spokesperson for the company said they welcome local inspections and are “cooperating fully.”
“The health, safety and well-being of the individuals entrusted to our care is our top priority,” spokesman Ryan Gustin wrote in a statement. “We take seriously our responsibility to adhere to all applicable federal detention standards in our ICE-contracted facilities.”
The facility undergoes regular reviews and audits by ICE and was recently reaccredited by the National Commission on Correctional Health Care, a nonprofit that offers voluntary accreditations, he added.
ICE has not published facility inspection reports since September 2022.
However, several detainees, relatives, lawyers and former staff members have complained about poor living standards at Otay Mesa — including poor medical care and overcrowding conditions.
In 2024, a former supervisor at the facility alleged chronic understaffing that led to poor health outcomes.
Earlier this month, detainees threw shampoo bottles wrapped with handwritten notes alleging deteriorating conditions.
“For 280 days we haven’t eaten a single piece of fruit, banana, apple, orange, or anything fresh. We are all in one big room with no doors or windows. We can’t see any grass or trees. We are all constantly sick,” read one note obtained by L.A. Taco.
