Shut Down Adelanto ICE Detention Center!
There is an ongoing hunger strike in the Adelanto CA ICE detention center’s Desert View Annex, where at least 20 people are refusing food in a last resort effort to try and change the horrifying conditions they endure at the detention center.
All immigrants deserve to seek immigration relief in the care of their beloved communities and with access to resources. Studies by the American Immigration Council (AIC) revealed that between Fiscal Years (FY) 2008 through 2018, 83% of all non-detained immigrants with a completed or pending removal case attended all their court hearings. This shows that when given the opportunity, most immigrants are maximizing their time outside of detention and following through with their cases. Detention is NEVER necessary, most US voters agree with this. According to a survey by the ACLU, 68% of voters do not support US Immigration and Customs Enforcement “ICE” detention and believe that contracts with profit, private prisons (such as Geo Group Inc) should end. The Adelanto Detention Facility should not be the exception.
ICE has been detaining immigrants at the Adelanto Detention Facility for over a decade under the management of private prison corporation GEO Group. This facility is among the largest and the worst detention centers as evidenced by the multiple deaths and dozens of sexual allegations that have been reported since it opened in 2011.
ICE and GEO group have failed to provide adequate care even with the massive amount of funding that has been allocated. The COVID-19 pandemic further attested to the inhumanity of keeping this detention facility open. In 2020, The Shut Down Adelanto Coalition began to expose a long list of environmental hazards that have long existed in the facility, such as the misuse of a cleaning chemical (pesticide) called HDQ Neutral, contaminated water, and horrible air quality coming from other toxic sites in close proximity to the detention center.
Just this week the Social Justice Legal Foundation submitted a lawsuit in Federal court against GEO group for their negligence and blatant disregard of immigrants’ health while in their care. To make matters worse, GEO group has continuously lied to the public and the residents of Adelanto by making false promises while committing human rights violations. One thing is clear, we cannot continue to allow our federal government to waste taxpayer dollars.
The only appropriate decision is to Shut Down Adelanto once and for all. This is the time for our elected officials to move toward a humane immigration system that promotes healthy communities.
You can sign on to the Shut Down Adelanto Coalition here: https://secure.everyaction.com/NjjbrulpoEicprG_nVIAiA2
Some people inside say that they are losing hope that people on the outside are thinking about them. We need more people to sign up to visit immigrants who are trapped in Adelanto. If you are interested in providing visitation, please email Guillermo Torres at gtorres@cluejustice.org.
Although the strikers are currently boycotting the commissary, as an action against the cruel for-profit model of the detention center, the Shut Down Adelanto Coalition is still in need of funds for detained immigrants’ commissary accounts. You can donate here: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/adelantocommissaryfunds
LAUSD Gambles $30 million on remote online video learning service
https://www.headlinesorbit.com/education/lausds-edgenuity-experiment-a-30-million-question
The LA Unified School District decision to spend $30 million on Edgenuity online courses has raised eyebrows. According to retired LAUSD history teacher Brenda Helfing, the courses were a quick fix for the district to enable students to graduate on time [by making up classes], making the district look good. However, this approach has been criticized for exacerbating learning gaps, discouraging students, and being easy to cheat on.
The widespread use of these online courses in the Los Angeles Unified School District has sparked concerns about the quality of learning . Helfing argues that students are not learning when using Edgenuity, a digital learning tool [since they can easily look up answers online for homework assignments and quizzes without mastering the material]. The district’s reliance on these courses has left many wondering if the $30 million investment was worth it.
A review of the LAUSD’s May filing by Southern California News Group revealed that auditors had flagged several issues with the district’s contracts with Edgenuity. The auditors expressed concerns about the lack of transparency and accountability in the district’s dealings with the company. As the LAUSD continues to rely on Edgenuity, the question remains: what did the auditors flag in the May filing that has yet to be addressed?
Change Links note: LAUSD’s Edgenuity files were also hacked, a data breach that potentially exposed 4 million student records on the dark web. According to Brinztech intelligence published on 19 April 2026, the data was sourced from a compromised Snowflake cloud data warehouse instance. The attacker is demanding a $150,000 USD ransom with a strict seven-day deadline, threatening to publicly leak the minor PII, health records, and authentication data if payment is not received.
It also seems like a blatant ploy to further reduce the teacher corps of unionized secondary school teachers in the face of falling enrollments and program and staffing cuts. The teachers in the online offerings are employed by Edgenuity, not LAUSD, and thus not covered by the contract with United Teachers Los Angeles. The video lessons become the intellectual property of Edgenuity, and are not personalized to particular students or classes.
LA World Cup Human Rights Strategy Fails to Meet Basic Required Standards
Human rights and anti‑trafficking advocates are calling on the Los Angeles Sports and Entertainment Commission (LASEC) Board of Directors to publicly explain why the Human Rights Strategy posted on May 1 for the 2026 FIFA World Cup fails to meet even the minimum expectations set by FIFA’s 2017 Human Rights Policy.
On May 1, LASEC posted a document titled LA FIFA 26 + Human Rights. Advocates say the document is not a human rights plan. Instead, it merely restates existing federal, state, and local laws and provides basic hot-line numbers. It contains no analysis of documented human rights risks, no prevention strategy, no operational planning, and no commitments of resources from FIFA or LASEC—despite years of expert recommendations and the scale of the billion‑dollar enterprise the World Cup represents.
In February, a contractor working with LASEC indicated that a draft Human Rights Plan would be released in May. While a document has now been posted, advocates say it does not meet the requirements of FIFA’s 2017 Human Rights Policy or LASEC’s obligations as a host‑city partner. Nor does it reflect evidence‑based recommendations from community experts, including those in the December 2025 Loyola Law School report, Preventing and Addressing Human Trafficking Related to Major Sporting Events in Los Angeles.
“Los Angeles is weeks away from hosting one of the largest sporting events in the world, and yet what has been posted is not a plan,” said Stephanie Richard, Director of the Sunita Jain Anti‑Trafficking Initiative at Loyola Law School. “It is a list of laws and hotline numbers. …A billion‑dollar industry cannot claim to uphold human rights while providing zero dollars and leaving cities to absorb all the risk.”
Advocates note that Los Angeles is not alone. Across the 2026 host cities, most have not released human rights plans, and none have received dedicated funding from FIFA to support prevention, outreach, or victim services. This pattern, they say, reflects a broader failure by FIFA to operationalize its own human rights standards—and a failure by LASEC to demand contractual terms that protect Los Angeles’ most vulnerable communities.
Advocates Urge LASEC Board to Hold Public Discussion and Demand Accountability
Advocates are calling on the LASEC Board of Directors to place a dedicated agenda item on its next meeting to address:
- Why the posted Human Rights Strategy lacks prevention, operational planning, or resource commitments
- What steps LASEC took—or did not take—to ensure compliance with FIFA’s 2017 Human Rights Policy
- How LASEC will address the gaps identified by experts, including the absence of any strategy to prevent labor trafficking
- How LASEC will strengthen and fund human rights planning for future large‑scale sporting and entertainment events in Los Angeles
“Those at risk of abuse before and during major sporting events deserve protection,” Richard said. “None of that has happened in Los Angeles. The LASEC Board owes the public a clear explanation.”
Human Trafficking Risks Are Well‑Documented
Advocates point to extensive evidence—including findings from the December 2025 Loyola Law School report—that labor trafficking increases around major sporting events, and that prevention requires:
- Public awareness campaigns
- Worker‑led audits of supply chains
- Legal monitoring and protections for immigrant workers
- Expanded hotline and victim‑services capacity
- Independent evaluation and public reporting
“Without funded, time‑bound, enforceable actions, there is no meaningful human rights strategy,” Richard said. “Los Angeles has the expertise and partners to do this right. What’s missing is FIFA’s investment and LASEC’s leadership.”
A Billion‑Dollar Industry With Zero Dollars for Human Rights
Advocates emphasized that FIFA’s revenues for the 2026 World Cup are projected to exceed $11 billion, yet FIFA has not provided a single dollar to support human rights protections in Los Angeles or any other host city.
“Legal protections are meaningless if workers cannot safely access them,” said Loyola Law School Student Advocate Sophia Fortier. “FIFA’s refusal to fund even basic safeguards—while relying on cities to absorb the risks—undermines its own human rights commitments.”
The Fair Games Coalition added: “The lack of substantial engagement with key issues reflects FIFA’s fiscal interests, not the interests of our City. We demand better.”
Jobs to Move America highlights “The LA FIFA 26 host committee just released the human rights plan only weeks before kickoff. This is extremely concerning. One of FIFA’s major sponsors- Hyundai-Kia- has had well-documented human and labor rights concerns involving companies in its U.S. supply chain, including child labor.
The plan falls short with no prevention strategy, no operational planning, and no commitment to resources. Los Angeles has invested heavily to host the 2026 World Cup. LASEC should take leadership in ensuring accountability in protecting local communities and workers along supply chains,” said Valerie Lizárraga, Assistant Director of Organizing & Policy (Western States), Jobs to Move America.
MEDIA CONTACTS: Stephanie Richard, Sunita Jain Anti-Trafficking Initiative, Loyola Law School, Stephanie.Richard@lls.edu; Maria Hernandez, Fair Games, mhernandez@unitehere11.org; Valerie Lizárraga, Jobs to Move America, vlizarraga@jobstomoveamerica.org
