October 24, 2025
CALIFORNIA CITY, CA – The Rapid Response Network of Kern, Dignity not Detention Coalition and statewide partner organizations will hold an urgent press conference and rally and deliver public comment at California City’s next City Council meeting to demand that city leaders immediately use their authority to shut down the CoreCivic ICE Detention Center.
WHAT: Press Conference, Rally and Public Comment Demanding Action from California City Council
WHO: California City residents and workers, Rapid Response Network of Kern, Detention Watch Network, and Dolores Huerta Foundation
WHEN: 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, October 28
WHERE: City Hall, 21000 Hacienda Blvd., California City, 93505
VISUALS: Names of people who have lost their lives inside ICE detention, flowers and posters
This Día de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) action honors the lives of the 22 people who have died in ICE detention custody, a record number of deaths within a calendar year since Detention Watch Network began tracking in 2006, including three deaths by suicide and condemns the deplorable and inhumane conditions under which they were detained.
In immigration detention, deprivation of freedom, isolation, uncertainty and abysmal conditions, including inadequate medical care and mental health services, inedible food and racist abuse, are a lethal combination that puts lives in jeopardy. The Trump administration’s detention expansion plans are exacerbating the inhumane conditions inherent to ICE’s detention system, and people in Southern and Central California are coming together to protect people from ICE and demand detention centers be shut down across the country.
People detained have described the Cal City Detention Center as “a torture chamber,” “a zoo” and “hell on earth.”
CoreCivic, a billion-dollar private prison corporation, has a long and well-documented track record of neglect, abuse, and profit-driven operations. It has now opened the largest immigration detention center in California, right here in Kern County. CoreCivic preys on rural communities with false promises of jobs and revenue, and cheap gas discount promotions to buy support, but we cannot allow our communities to become dumping grounds for private prison expansion.
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The Rapid Response Network of Kern is a collaborative of local organizations, community leaders, and immigrant rights advocates supporting our immigrant communities established to respond to the needs and challenges of our immigrant communities who are targeted by increased immigration enforcement activities.
