Press and Advocacy Groups Demand Private Corrections Giant GEO Group to Unseal Court Records, Footage of Abuse in Notorious Adelanto Immigration Facility
Feb. 3, 2026
Media Contacts:
Nicole Funaro, Media Relations Strategist, Public Justice, nfunaro@publicjustice.net
Tamara Marquez, Communications Director, ICIJ, tamara@ic4ij.org
Ben Camacho, The Southlander, 562-287-4629, ben.camacho@thesouthlander.com
RIVERSIDE, CA — Public Justice has filed a motion to intervene and unseal crucial court records in Hugo Gonzalez, et al. v. The GEO Group, Inc., et al., a case challenging immigration detention conditions in the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, a notorious immigration detention complex operated by the private corrections giant GEO Group. The records and documents the motion seeks to unseal would 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 represents independent local newsroom Los Angeles Public Press, local news cooperative The Southlander, the First Amendment Coalition and the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice in this motion to intervene.
GEO Group is the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) largest contractor and acts as a one-stop-shop for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s mass deportation machine. Since Adelanto was taken over by GEO in 2011, there have been dozens of lawsuits filed against the corporation and its employees alleging violations of civil rights and labor law. Over the years, both incarcerated people and the outside community have staged protests to bring awareness to the deplorable conditions of confinement and demand change. For example, in the spring and summer of 2020, community members repeatedly rallied outside Adelanto to demand humane treatment of those inside and closure of the facility all together. The external protests prompted GEO to issue internal lockdowns, with people detained in their cells for upwards of 23.5 hours a day for multiple days in a row.
As Plaintiffs allege, on June 12, 2020, a mere 48 hours after having been released from a three-day lockdown, incarcerated people received orders to return to their cells due to another protest outside the facility. A group decided to protest the lockdown order by remaining in place and refusing to return to their cells. GEO immediately responded to their peaceful protest with coordinated and indiscriminate violence. The correctional emergency response team stormed the units and blanketed everyone — protestor or otherwise — with pepper bullets and spray. People detained in the units were then left to sit in their cells for up to three days, with their bodies and surroundings saturated in chemicals meant to cause debilitating pain. They were not given access to showers, fresh air, or cleaning supplies, with many resorting to using toilet water to try to cleanse themselves and provide a modicum of relief. The named plaintiffs describe coughing, chest pain, intermittent blindness, and burning skin that continued for weeks after the attack.
The lawsuit — Hugo Gonzalez, et al. v. The GEO Group, Inc., et al. — was filed in June 2022, and alleges violations of the First, Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments, as well as state tort law claims. There are over fifty sealed documents in the case, most of them exhibits to the summary judgment or class certification briefs. These documents include video footage, staff and executive communications, movement logs showing when people were finally allowed to shower or receive medical treatment, and internal reports following the incident. If unsealed, these materials will likely provide meaningful insight into the abuses regularly perpetrated by GEO against the growing number of immigrants they detain and how GEO uses excessive punishment to chill protected activity, both inside and outside of their facilities.
“GEO Group has a consistent pattern of evading accountability while raking in billions of our tax dollars, a feat that has been enabled by the opaque and utterly ineffective system of DHS oversight,” said Jacqueline Arkush, Justice Catalyst Fellow for Public Justice. “Organizations and members of the press, such as our clients, have long amplified the experiences and voices of people detained at Adelanto. GEO’s attempts to silence them and manipulate our legal system violate the First Amendment.”
“Geo Group has been lavished with billions of dollars’ worth of government contracts and yet has resisted even the slightest attempts at transparency and scrutiny,” said Kevin Flores of The Southlander. “Given the corporation’s track record of violating the rights of detainees and the current immigration crackdown, unsealing these records is more critical than ever to give the public and policymakers the ability to hold Geo Group accountable.”
“For years, the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice has warned that Adelanto is not a detention center, it is a concentration camp built on secrecy, violence, and profit,” said Javier Hernandez, Executive Director of the Inlan Consortium of Investigative Journalists. “What happened in June 2020 was not an isolated incident; it was a glimpse into the daily reality GEO Group has worked tirelessly to hide. Press and advocacy groups are right to demand that GEO unseal the court records and release the footage, emails, and reports documenting this abuse. The public has a right to see how peaceful protest was met with chemical warfare, how human beings were left to suffer in toxic cells for days, and how accountability was buried behind sealed documents. Transparency is the first step, but it is not enough. Adelanto must be shut down permanently, no more excuses, no more secrecy, no more suffering.”
Trial in Hugo Gonzalez, et al. v. The GEO Group, Inc., et al. is currently set to begin in April 2026.
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