ICE detainee reveals video of drinking water apparently contaminated with worm-like creatures

Summary

‘Disturbing’ footage shared by California detainee surfaces amid wider complaints about conditions in ICE (immigration enforcement agency) detention Attorneys for a man detained in a California immigration detention center have released footage showing him holding up a bottle of water from inside the facility that appeared to be contaminated with worm-like creatures. The footage came from a video call with Carlitos Ricardo Parias, a Los Angeles man who has been detained for months at the Adelanto Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility, north-east of LA. Geo Group, the private prison company that runs the ICE facility, did not respond to inquiries. The footage has surfaced weeks after a federal judge ordered ICE to ensure that people detained in Adelanto had “24-hour access to clean, potable drinking water”. He received national attention after he was shot by an ICE agent in October and then charged with assault. A federal judge dismissed the charge and he was transferred to ICE custody where he is facing removal. “When I saw the video, I was horrified and disgusted. They can’t just sweep it under the rug.” The footage has circulated widely among advocates and immigration attorneys in recent days. Lawyers involved in the class-action case said they had seen the footage, but also had not heard direct accounts from other detained residents about the specific contaminant shown in the video. “The video is very disturbing and we’re looking into it,” said Rebecca Brown, supervising attorney at Public Counsel, a public interest law firm that brought the lawsuit, alongside several other organizations. “Detained individuals have long complained about the quality of the water … We’ve heard of water being murky, tasting terrible, having unknown things in it.” Carl Bergquist, counsel with the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, another group representing the class-action plaintiffs, said the footage was concerning and raised questions about whether the government was complying with the judge’s order to provide clean water. In a filing challenging the judge’s order this week, lawyers for DHS (Dept. of Homeland Security) said the drinking water had been “sampled and tested at various distribution points by an independent third party … and determined to be clean per Food and Drug Administration (FDA) standards”. DHS has also argued in court that Geo Group as a contractor is responsible for the conditions of the facility.