Food Shortages and Cramped Confinements: Lawyers Sound Alarms Over 'Inhumane Conditions' In L.A. ICE Facilities

As Immigration and Customs Services (ICE) scrambles to meet its ambitious quota of 3,000 daily arrests, detention facilities across the country are becoming increasingly overcrowded, with the consequences that scenario entails. In Los Angeles, an expert is saying detention centers are "a ticking time bomb."

Immigration lawyers in L.A. say they have been receiving more and more calls about medical needs that are not being addressed at the Metropolitan Detention Center, a new report by CBS News reveals.

"There is limited and very erratic access to food," Kristen Hunsberger, an attorney with the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, told the outlet during a phone interview. "I spoke with one individual detained in downtown Los Angeles who reported being woken up at 2 a.m. or 4 a.m., was given food, and they wouldn't have their next meal until 14 hours later."

The lawyer described similar conditions in other detention facilities, including the processing center in Adelanto, California, where some migrants from Los Angeles have been transferred to. She added that some of her clients have even been denied access to medication, some have been kept in temporary holding areas with no air circulation and have at times been left without communication because of the lack of working phones.

"I would describe it as very chaotic— it's really an emerging crisis," Hunsberger said. "I'm concerned that if left unaddressed, that we will start hearing about, God forbid, people starting to die or having health crises in these detention centers because of the delay in access or just complete denial of access."

Another lawyer who spoke to the outlet but asked for anonymity because she has clients inside the detention center, said they are reporting "inhumane conditions," ranging from food shortages, cramped confinement, freezing temperatures and environments that are a "ticking-time bomb."

But physical issues are not the only ones being pointed out by lawyers and experts in the area— so is the lack of due process. In one instance, a Peruvian family who was scheduled for a court hearing on June 25 for their asylum case received a notification from ICE to attend a check-in appointment on June 5 instead. It was during that check-in that Ever Cardenas, along with his wife and two daughters, were forced to sign their deportation paperwork.

"I told them we had rights and didn't have to sign anything," Cardenas told CBS News in Spanish during a phone interview from Peru. "I begged them for hours to let me call a lawyer, but they refused to let us use a phone. Eventually we were left with no options and signed."

"I just wanted to talk to a lawyer," Cardenas said. "I kept telling agents that my daughter was going to miss her middle school graduation the following day, but that didn't matter."

Lawmakers have also pointed out the dire conditions migrants face at ICE detention facilities. Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., sounded the alarm last week in a video, stating she was deeply disturbed by what she saw during her visit to the Adelanto ICE facility.

Chu said the detainees she spoke with at the facility were "not the criminals that [President Donald] Trump says that he's trying to get out of this country," noting that some of those were detained simply over expired documents.

"They are undergoing conditions that are inhumane, in my opinion. They were not able to change their underwear for 10 days," Chu said in the video, adding: "They did not get a PIN number for the telephone. As a result, they cannot be in contact with any legal representative nor with their family members. This is not right."