As California’s border forces struggle to deal with the thousands of migrants illegally flooding into the US daily, one entire detention facility is being used to house just five people.
The well-equipped Adelanto ICE Processing Center, situated roughly 80 miles northeast of Los Angeles, can hold up to 1,940 detainees but remains almost empty. Meanwhile, the San Diego border area to the south is completely overrun with 37,000 illegal crossers apprehended in April alone.
The facility is still under a 2020 judge’s order blocking it from taking more detainees in response to a lawsuit over the spread of COVID-19.
The order allows detainees to maintain “a social distance of six feet from each other at all times” even though such rules have been discarded at detention facilities across the rest of the country.
Border Patrol usually keep detainees for up to 72 hours but send those it flags as potential threats to ICE facilities for further investigation.
“If the Biden Administration was serious about using detention beds, it would ask for the COVID-era court order at Adelanto to be lifted,” former Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office director John Fabbricatore told The Post.
“This situation is nearing a boiling point, as we keep allowing individuals from hostile nations to enter the United States unchecked,” he added.
San Diego arrested 10,000 migrants from 69 countries in a single week in April, according to Chief Border Patrol Agent Patricia McGurk-Daniel.
Federal sources have explained to The Post how when border sectors are overwhelmed – like San Diego, which had roughly 1,500 more migrants in custody than it has space for as of Wednesday, per sources – migrants have to be processed quicker and are less closely scrutinized.
That means the ability to send people on to ICE for further evaluation is crucial.
“[The administration’s] inaction has resulted in the release of Special Interest Aliens—individuals from countries with adversarial positions towards the United States—into American communities rather than detaining them per usual protocol,” Fabbricatore added.
Recent border blunders have included releasing a known Somali terrorist and a Colombian fugitive wanted for murder into the US. Both cases were only admitted once they had been re-apprehended by federal authorities.
Republican Rep. Jay Obernolte, whose district includes Adelanto, has pressured the Biden administration to restart normal operations.
Despite it housing only five people, taxpayers are still funding space to hold 640 individuals at the facility, according to data seen by The Post.
“Adelanto ICE facility is the only remaining correctional facility with an absolute intake prohibition due to COVID-19.
“We must bring this facility fully online and utilize its capacity to reduce the financial burden that the enormous flow of illegal immigrants streaming across the border has had on our community,” Obernolte said.
The Biden administration was set to close the Adelanto facility in December, but ICE launched a 60 day evaluation of the detention center, followed by an additional 120 days to provide “additional time for potential relief from ongoing litigation that prevents full use of the facility,” Fox News reported in January.
Neither ICE nor the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) responded to The Post’s requests for comment.
