Media Contacts:

Public Justice, communications@publicjustice.net

Tamara Marquez, tamara@ic4ij.org

RIVERSIDE, CA — Public Justice has filed motions to intervene and unseal court records on behalf of the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice in Ronduen, et al. v. The GEO Group, Inc., et al., a class action case pending in the Central District of California alleging use of a toxic pesticide inside the Adelanto ICE Processing Center.

Plaintiffs allege that GEO Group, aided by Spartan Chemical Company, sprayed the entire detention facility with a toxic pesticide known as HDQ Neutral roughly 50 times each day as part of its COVID-19 response. HDQ Neutral was sprayed at a dilution that was twice the concentration allowable under Environmental Protection Agency regulations but was nonetheless improperly approved by manufacturer and supplier Spartan Chemical Company. The near-constant use of the chemical is believed to have led to multiple acute medical issues, as well as the development of chronic conditions such as occupational asthma and COPD. Studies have also linked overexposure to the compounds in HDQ Neutral to reproductive and developmental harms.

HDQ Neutral is a Quaternary Ammonium Compound regulated by the EPA under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). The two active chemicals in the compound are rated at the highest levels of toxicity. Strict safety guidelines govern the use of heavily diluted HDQ Neutral as a disinfectant in industrial and institutional settings.

GEO purchased the disinfectant from Spartan for many years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the agreement, Spartan would provide cleaning chemicals, labels, safety instructions, dispensers/dilution centers, and cages for storing chemicals. Spartan also agreed to monitor the use of the chemicals, including through onsite inspections, and to alert GEO of “spikes in usage” affecting GEO’s “cost per inmate” under their agreements.

For years, GEO used HDQ Neutral at the EPA-approved dilution of 1 ounce per gallon. However, that changed with the onset of COVID-19. Beginning in February 2020, GEO staff began spraying doubly concentrated HDQ Neutral directly into the air, on porous and nonporous surfaces, in food areas, medical units, and other places. They sprayed every fifteen to thirty minutes, even during meals and while people were sleeping in windowless and poorly ventilated cells and dorms. The only access to fresh air was in small quads, enclosed on all four sides with high cement walls, where access was often limited to up to 60 minutes a day. There was no escape for those trapped in the facility, who were forced to continuously inhale the pesticide with little to no protective equipment.

When people detained began reporting illnesses, their concerns were dismissed and even mocked. Detainees reported headaches, eye pain, temporary blindness, bleeding from the nose and mouth, hair loss, blisters, rashes, difficulty breathing, coughing, vomiting, gastrointestinal distress, and fainting. When they requested that spraying be reduced, they were repeatedly told by GEO that this application of HDQ Neutral was the only safe disinfectant against COVID-19. The spraying continued for nine months until its use was stopped by court order in a different lawsuit.

Spartan was aware of GEO’s use of HDQ Neutral through site visits and skyrocketing order quantities. During this time, Spartan adjusted the dilution nozzles onsite and internally approved use of the double concentration “given the nature of [GEO’s] business.” No additional reason was offered by Spartan for why a concentration only EPA-approved for disinfecting empty livestock pens was safe to use in unventilated cells and dorms full of human beings. Additionally, GEO and Spartan may have intentionally concealed the toxic nature of HDQ Neutral by removing, obscuring, and mislabeling the dispensers and bottles that were accessible to people detained. The documents currently under seal will hopefully provide an explanation for how two corporations decided — against EPA regulations and CDC guidance — that using a toxic pesticide to essentially fumigate a facility full of people was an appropriate response to COVID-19.

“From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, GEO Group has tried to hide the extent of both its misuse of HDQ Neutral and its knowledge of the horrible impacts that the spraying was having on the people entirely under its control,” said Jacqueline Arkush, Justice Catalyst Fellow for Public Justice. “Spartan facilitated the misuse and approved of GEO using its product to poison people. Rather than stopping the toxic spraying, GEO chose to continue spraying and obscure the toxicity, all while denying its wrongdoing at every turn — from the people inside Adelanto, from EPA inspectors, during congressional hearings, and, now, in our courts. The Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice was one of the original organizations that refused to allow GEO to silence the voices of people inside Adelanto and to hide what it was doing.”

“People detained at Adelanto were trapped inside a facility where they were repeatedly exposed to a toxic chemical, and when they spoke out about the harm they were experiencing, their concerns were dismissed,” said Esmeralda Santos, Lead Organizer for the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice. “The physical and potentially long-term consequences of that exposure cannot be erased or ignored. The people who endured this deserve justice, and the public deserves to know how this was allowed to happen. This case is an important step toward accountability for Adelanto and GEO Group’s long history of inhumane conditions and toward closing Adelanto and ending a detention system that has inflicted harm on far too many people.”

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