What happens when ICE opens a detention center in your town?

By Emily Dreyfuss and Jesse Alejandro CottrellArticle by Gabrielle BerbeyProduced by Gabrielle BerbeyEdited by Matt ColletteEngineered by Michelle LanzPublished Nov. 19, 2025 • 5:32am

In late August, Mayor Marquette Hawkins of California City got a phone call from an immigration advocate asking if he knew that detainees were being housed in an empty prison on the outskirts of town. Hawkins had no idea.

“I felt a deep, sinking feeling in my stomach,” Hawkins said, “because I knew as a city we weren’t prepared.”

Four officials sit behind a wooden council desk with “IN GOD WE TRUST” in gold letters and a California City seal on the brick wall. — Residents stand in line to speak out against the California Correctional Facility housing migrants at a city council meeting in California City. | Source: Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Immigration and Customs Enforcement had quietly opened a detention center in the Kern County city. What Hawkins — a former rapper from Compton — did not anticipate was that he would soon find himself being held responsible for this facility.

Since President Donald Trump took office in January, his administration has been reviving zombie prisons throughout the country (opens in new tab) to increase detention capacity as ICE has drastically increased arrests (opens in new tab). A pattern began to emerge: ICE seemed to be blowing through local laws in the cities in which it was opening detention centers.

The city of Leavenworth, Kansas, sued CoreCivic (opens in new tab), the private prison company contracting with ICE, for violating permit laws by allowing the agency to hold detainees in its prison. Officials in Portland, Oregon, are threatening to evict ICE (opens in new tab), claiming its detention center violates local regulations on land use.

A sign reads “CoreCivic California City Immigration Processing Center” with a barbed wire fence and security structures in the background. — The CoreCivic, Inc. California City Immigration Processing Center | Source: Photo by Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

In California City, immigration advocates are accusing ICE and CoreCivic of similarly acting with disregard to local license and permitting laws. In addition to the alleged bureaucratic infractions, the California City ICE facility has been mired by allegations (opens in new tab) of inhumane treatment of detainees, including inadequate access to critical medical care, squalid conditions, and retaliatory action from guards.

Shortly after the facility opened in August, more than 100 detainees went on a hunger strike to protest their treatment. Now, several detainees are suing ICE over the conditions. But unlike city representatives in Leavenworth and Portland, Hawkins and California City have not fought back against ICE and CoreCivic.

In this episode of “Pacific Standard Time,” The Standard asks Hawkins what, if anything, his small desert city can do to take on the federal government’s detainment machine, and why he has chosen inaction when others are fighting back.

🎧 Listen to the full episode on Spotify (opens in new tab) or Apple Podcasts (opens in new tab)
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