A man detained inside California’s largest ICE detention center said staff confiscated his glasses and denied him immediate medical care after he fell from his bunk bed and sustained a head injury.

“It took them about a month to return my glasses to me. I had an accident because they took away my glasses. I couldn’t see, so I fell off my bunk bed stairs, hit my head, and was bleeding,” said Alfonso, the detained man, in a phone interview from inside the ICE facility in California City. “It was a nightmare. It happened at five in the morning, and they didn’t even have gauze to wipe the blood.”

Alfonso’s daughter asked that The Bee not reveal his last name, fearing reprisals against him for speaking about his experience inside the detainment facility.

His claims add to the mounting allegations of neglect and mistreatment of detained individuals since the facility opened in August. Located in the remote Kern County desert, the ICE detention center now houses about 750 people.

In its two months of operation, detainees have staged sit-ins and refused meals to protest conditions they say resemble a prison more than a civil detention center. They’ve accused ICE and CoreCivic, the private prison operator overseeing the facility, of delaying access to medication and using practices, such as solitary confinement, as punishment for speaking out.

There’s no record of Alfonso, 58, in ICE’s online locator system for detainees since he was transferred to the California City detention center in early September.

Worried after she couldn’t locate her father in the ICE system, Esmeralda Vasquez drove two hours to California City from San Bernardino to see him. She waited for nearly three hours in a lobby where flies swarmed overflowing trash cans, she said.

Vasquez gasped the moment she saw her father through a plexiglass window during her Oct. 5 visit.

“He looks defeated. He is stressed and losing weight. He looks a lot older and sad,” she said.

CoreCivic, the facility’s operator, said it found no evidence to support Alfonso’s allegations and believes they are not credible.

“We take our responsibility to provide safe, humane, and respectful care very seriously,” said a CoreCivic spokesperson. “Every individual in our immigration facilities deserves to be treated with dignity, and we work hard to meet that standard every day.”

Alleged negligent treatment from the start

Alfonso said he was transferred to the California City detention center on Sept. 4 from Golden State Annex, another ICE detention facility in McFarland.

“We spent the whole day handcuffed on the bus, no water, no food, we weren’t even able to use the bathroom because it was locked. We arrived at California City at around noon that day,” Alfonso said. “They (CoreCivic workers) parked and laughed at us while we sat inside the bus for six hours.”

The 58-year-old fell inside his living quarters at the facility Sept. 16 and hit his head on the floor. Alfonso said he didn’t receive proper medical attention until 12 hours after the accident.

Facility staff first took him to a clinic about 8 a.m., he said, but a doctor refused to treat him because he lacked insurance, so he went back to the detention center, which does not have an infirmary on site.

Alfonso, with a severe headache, sat in a chair most of that day until he was taken to another clinic, where he received staples to close a wound on his head.

“They had me all day without food and without being able to go to the bathroom, so I fainted while they took me in the van to the other clinic,” Alfonso said.

Alfonso said that when he returned to the detention facility, he was placed in a dirty room for several days for observation.

He said staff confused him with another detainee and gave him medication that wasn’t meant for him.

“It’s such horrible negligence,” he said.

Alfonso said that he got the staples removed about Sept. 23. It took a week for facility staff to give him pills for the headaches he was experiencing, he said.

He said he continues to experience headaches, hearing loss, lightheadedness, and other symptoms.

“I feel bad. I haven’t been the same since. I never used to have headaches, and now I get sharp pains in my head. The blow was on the right side. That side feels numb, my ear feels dull, almost deaf, and there’s a ringing left in it,” Alfonso said. “I don’t feel my life is going to be normal anymore. My back also hurts.”

As of Oct. 7, he still had not received proper follow-up care even as he said he filed a request with the facility’s officials four days prior to see a doctor. He also said he still hasn’t received all of his belongings that staff discarded when he first arrived at the detention center, including food and some rosaries he made.

ICE has no record of detainee in its system

Vasquez, Alfonso’s daughter, worries her dad may be facing more mistreatment than reported because ICE has no proper record that he is even at the California City facility.

She said his name hasn’t appeared in ICE’s online locator system for detainees almost two months since he was transferred from McFarland, meaning his detention status isn’t publicly traceable.

“When this accident happened, I kept thinking how easily things could’ve gone wrong, how he could’ve just disappeared, you know? That’s why I keep asking, why isn’t he showing up there? I know he’s not doing well — he keeps telling me he has headaches. What if he has an untreated concussion and something happens, he passes out and gets hurt and no record of him even being there is left?” she said.

The Bee also searched for Alfonso in ICE’s locator system using the information provided by his daughter, but his name did not appear.

Vasquez is trying to work with the Mexican consulate in Fresno to help with his immigration case and secure legal representation .

CoreCivic noted that it doesn’t enforce immigration laws, make arrests, or decide who is detained or released — and that those responsibilities belong to the federal government.

The company said that detainees have access to several channels for filing grievances, as well as 24/7 health care that meets government standards. Medical staff, include doctors, nurses, and mental health professionals, and the company said medications are dispensed without delay, a CoreCivic spokesperson said.

CoreCivic said it’s “patently false” that individuals are being held in unsanitary conditions.

The CoreCivic spokesperson said the facility is closely monitored and subject to multiple layers of oversight to ensure compliance with all detention standards.

Because Vasquez fears possible retaliation against her father, The Bee is withholding Alfonso’s last name and agreed not to share his full identifying information with CoreCivic or ICE.

An ICE spokesperson said that without a full name, date of birth, or alien registration number, the agency “cannot provide any details regarding an individual’s arrest or detention.”

The spokesperson added that all detainees are provided with proper meals, potable water, medical treatment, to include sick call and emergency services as needed, frequently sanitized and vermin-free environments, along with opportunities to communicate with family members and lawyers in accordance with strictly enforced national detention standards.

“Proper facility conditions are ensured through thorough inspections and any claims otherwise are false,” the spokesperson said.

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