Sen. Alex Padilla, after visit to California immigrant detention center, wants big changes

David Lightman, The Sacramento Bee on Jan 26, 2026

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

WASHINGTON — California Sen. Alex Padilla and Democratic colleagues proposed Monday overhauling what he called a “cruel” immigrant detention system.

The Senate is expected to debate immigration policy this week, as it considers funding for the Department of Homeland Security. Democrats said Monday they won’t vote for the DHS budget.

They’re furious at what Padilla has called “terrorizing our communities and breaking the law,” anger fueled by Saturday’s shooting by federal agents in Minneapolis of intensive care nurse Alex Pretti after he tried to shield other protesters from being pepper sprayed.

The Republican-led House last week approved the DHS budget for the rest of this fiscal year on a largely party-line vote.

Padilla, D-Calif., is the top Democrat on the Senate’s border security and immigration subcommittee.

Visiting the detention facility

Padilla and Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., last week visited California’s biggest detention center.

They found the California City facility had what a Padilla statement called “inhumane conditions detained individuals are facing at the private, for-profit facility.”

CoreCivic, a private company that runs the center, counters in a fact sheet that “We care for each person in our immigration facilities respectfully and humanely while they receive the legal due process that they are entitled to.”

The Padilla plan would bar the detention of families and phase out the use of private detention facilities and jails over a three-year period. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment by this story’s deadline.

He would repeal mandatory detention and replace it with a system requiring DHS to show that those in the detention centers are “ a threat to public safety or national security.”

The agency would have to establish civil detention standards that provide certain protections, while requiring that the DHS inspector general make unannounced visits “with meaningful penalties for failure to comply with standards.”

The California City center

The California City facility, established in August, is a former state prison located in a remote area of the Mojave Desert, about 110 miles north of Los Angeles.

It opened in August and will have 2,560 beds. CoreCivic says it “partners with the U.S. Marshals Service and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to provide safe environments where detainees can reside temporarily as they go through their legal due process.”

In an email to the Sacramento Bee, company spokesman Brian Todd detailed its operation.

“All our facilities operate with a significant amount of oversight and accountability, including being monitored by federal officials on a daily basis, to ensure an appropriate standard of living and care for every individual,” he said.

The California facility, as all CoreCivic’s facilities, “will be audited regularly and without notice several times a year, and routinely visited by elected officials, attorneys, families and volunteers.”

He challenged the notion that there is solitary confinement, saying the term “is often incorrectly used by the media, activist groups, and others. Solitary confinement, whether as a term or in practice, does not exist at CCCF, or any facility that CoreCivic operates.”

Todd said “Restrictive housing is in place for various reasons, including medical and mental health observation and administrative/investigative purposes. It’s also important to note that detainees themselves can and do request protective custody. Individuals in restrictive housing still have full access to courts, visitation, mail, showers, meals, all medical facilities and recreation.

“We always strive to ensure detainees are cared for in the least restrictive environment necessary to maintain the safety and security of the institution” he said.

And, the company added, it does not enforce immigration laws, arrest anyone in violation or have any say in anyone’s deportation or arrest. "Our responsibility is to care for each person respectfully and humanely while they receive the legal due process that they are entitled to.” Todd said.

Padilla had a different take. “Our bill would finally stop private, for-profit detention centers from lining their pockets by advancing Donald Trump’s cruel mass deportation campaign at the expense of our communities and economy,” he said Monday.

The bill, called the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act, has seven sponsors, all Democrats. In the House, it’s being pushed by Reps. Pramila Jayapal and Adam Smith, both D-Wash.

_____