Advocates rally outside Adelanto detention facility in support of proposed tax on for-profit detention centers

ADELANTO, Calif. () — A group of immigration advocates gathered outside an ICE detention facility in Adelanto to urge support of a measure that would impose a 50% tax on revenues generated by for-profit detention facilities.

Demonstrators chanted “Si se puede! Si se Puede!” during the rally Friday as supporters called for greater accountability for facilities that house immigration detainees.

Assemblymember Matt Haney, who sponsored Assembly Bill 1633, said the proposal is aimed at facilities that continue operating as for-profit detention centers.

“If these folks are going to continue to operate, and take profits off the backs of our families and communities, and off of human suffering and family separation, they’re going to pay a price,” Haney said.

Haney argued that detention facilities are profiting at the expense of people in their custody and cited population growth at the Adelanto facility.

“In 2023, there were just seven people that were detained. Now there’s over 1,500 and they did not increase staff sufficiently to meet that population,” Haney said.

Advocates at the event echoed those concerns.

“People are not commodities and their suffering should not be a source of profit,” said Javier Hernandez of the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice.

Eyewitness News recently spoke with a friend of one of the most recent immigrants to be detained at the facility.

Jeff Markwardt said Alex Pereira-Alves, a West Hollywood resident, has been living legally in the United States since 2018 when a judge ruled he could remain in the country as long as he stayed in good standing.

Markwardt said his friend would routinely check in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but said regulations and enforcement policies have become unpredictable.

He said Pereria-Alves was taken into custody on Tuesday.

“The judge told him he could stay. ICE told him he could stay. But the rules are being unwritten and rewritten daily,” Markwardt said.

Assemblymember Celeste Rodriguez called for more sweeping change.

“This place should not exist,” Rodriguez said.

Hernandez said advocates are seeking reforms for those being held at detention centers.

“We are calling for accountability, humane conditions and dignity for every person in detention,” he said.

AB 1633 has already passed the California State Assembly and is now before the state Senate. If approved there, it would still require the governor’s signature before becoming law.