Why this matters
An inspection of Otay Mesa Detention Center would be the first full inspection under a 2024 state law that allows California counties to inspect private detention facilities.
San Diego County supervisors have given the federal government an ultimatum — let us into Otay Mesa Detention Center or we will see you in court.
If the feds don’t allow a full inspection of the facility by Friday, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors want county counsel to file a lawsuit against the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and CoreCivic, the private company that operates the detention center.
The supervisors authorized the lawsuit in closed session Tuesday night in a 4-1 vote. Supervisor Jim Desmond voted no.
“Federal officials have a choice,” San Diego County Board of Supervisors Chair Terra Lawson-Remer said at a press conference on Wednesday. “They can allow us to proceed on Friday, or they can explain to a federal judge next week why they believe immigration detention facilities should be exempt from basic public health oversight.”
Desmond, who represents communities in northern San Diego County, explained his opposition in a statement to inewsource.
”I have no problem with the county conducting inspections of federal facilities,” he said. “What’s unclear to me is the protocol around allowing politicians to accompany health inspectors. Inspections should follow established procedures and remain professional, not turn into political theater.“
The Otay Mesa Detention Center, on the U.S.-Mexico border, is operated by Tennessee-based CoreCivic under a federal contract. Local officials say a California law enacted in 2024 gives county public health officers authority to inspect privately run immigration detention facilities to evaluate health and safety conditions.
The supervisors’ legal threat comes after two of them were blocked, along with U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, from visiting the detention center less than two weeks ago. A county health inspector was briefly allowed access but only to the medical bays and kitchen. He did not see any detainees and his requests to review medical records and facility health policies and speak to detainees were denied.
Lawson-Remer and Paloma Aguirre, who represents southern county communities and in whose district the detention center is located, were not allowed entry when they showed up.
That episode was the latest of several failed attempted tours of the facility by politicians, mainly members of Congress, in recent months. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement keeps citing a policy requiring seven days’ notice of an inspection in turning them away.
County supervisors said they filed an earlier request more than seven days in advance and received an email of approval from ICE that was shared with inewsource. In a press conference Wednesday following the lawsuit announcement, Supervisors Aguirre and Lawson-Remer explained that they were told that they received clearance from local ICE but that at “the last minute” national ICE officials revoked it.
“This wasn’t a local misunderstanding,” Supervisor Paloma Aguirre said at the press conference. “This was a directive from the highest levels of the federal government. To [Homeland Security] Secretary Kristi Noem: You have publicly claimed that these facilities are well-run and orderly. If that is true, why did your office intervene at the 11th hour to block a lawful inspection?”
Federal officials dispute county account
In response to a list of questions from inewsource, a DHS spokesperson said Wednesday that “San Diego County supervisors demanded entry at the Otay Mesa Detention Center without abiding by proper protocol and contacting ICE to request access at least seven days in advance. Instead, they reached out to an ICE contractor. Since ICE was not notified of the visit beforehand, they were turned away.”
The DHS statement added that detainees receive “the best healthcare” that “many aliens have received in their entire lives.” It has expressed that sentiment repeatedly under the Trump administration, including when describing the death of Alberto Gutierrez-Reyes in ICE custody at a hospital outside Los Angeles on Feb. 27.
Data from Austin Kocher, an immigration researcher and professor at Syracuse, shows there have been 10 deaths in ICE custody this year. It’s just more than two months into the year, but that pace would lead to nearly double the number of last year’s deaths, which was the deadliest for immigration detention according to The Guardian, with thirty-two deaths.
Oversight groups have criticized ICE holding facility conditions and government transparency. Project on Government Oversight, a nonprofit newsroom, has reported a steep drop in publicly posted detention inspection reports by ICE from 2024 to 2025 as the number of detainees rose.
In response to a list of questions from inewsource, Ryan Gustin, a spokesperson for CoreCivic, said that, “The safety, health and well-being of the individuals entrusted to our care is our top priority. We take seriously our responsibility to adhere to all applicable federal detention standards in our immigration facilities, including our Otay Mesa Detention Center.
Gustin added that the center is “required to undergo regular review and audit processes to ensure an appropriate standard of living and care for all detainees.”
Gustin directed questions about why the supervisors and other elected officials were turned away to ICE’s public affairs office, which did not respond to a request for comment.
The supervisors’ inspection would be the first full inspection of a private detention center under a 2024 state law that allows California counties to inspect them.
Type of Content
News: Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
