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Stunning images show where the US detains migrants crossing the southern borderhttps://www.businessinsider.in/miscellaneous/stunning-images-show-where-the-us-detains-migrants-crossing-the-southern-border/slidelist/64361435.cms2018-05-29T05:27:26+05:30

Stunning images show where the US detains migrants crossing the southern border

May 29, 2018, 05:27 IST

The majority of the following photos were taken in May 2017 at the immigration center in the desert city of Adelanto, California, which is the largest immigration detention center in the state.

After getting arrested by Immigration Customs and Enforcement agents, people can languish in the Adelanto detention center, and other such centers around the US, for years as they await hearings.

The Adelanto facility was last inspected in 2016 by ICE's ERO Custody Management Division, which found that the detention center met the "standard."

But multiple detainees have gone on hunger strikes or attempted suicide over the conditions since at least March 2017.

In the summer of 2017, nine asylum seekers from El Salvador went on a hunger strike at the facility, demanding better food and clean water.

They also asked for better clothing, specifically underwear.

The Adelanto immigration center is owned and operated by Geo Group, which is the second-largest private prison company in the US.

There have been multiple other incidents of riots, hunger strikes and more over conditions at other GEO Group immigrant detention centers around the US.

The state of Washington is also suing GEO Group over paying detainees less than the minimum wage at a center in Tacoma, Washington, where they have gone on multiple hunger strikes over low pay and poor food.

ICE pays the GEO Group up to about $112 per day, per detainee at the Adelanto immigration detention center.

Detainees at the Adelanto center are allowed to exercise.

And receive visitors.

But the Trump administration's new policy of prosecuting immigrants who cross the border could split up families and overwhelm detention centers.

The Trump administration has argued that the policy is effective, but has used faulty statistics from El Paso, Texas, about a 64% decrease in border crossings, to back up its claim.

At the same time, Trump has blamed Democrats, for the policy of prosecuting people who cross the southern US border illegally and causing the children who arrive with them to be separated from their parents — even though it is his administration's policy.

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