Last week, Jose Guadalupe Ramos-Solano died at Southern California’s Adelanto Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center.
“My husband was a good person, dedicated to his kids and to his wife,” said Ramos-Solano’s wife, Antonia Tovar, at a news conference this week. “I just want justice and to fight for the people who are there. I want my husband’s case to be the last one.”
Gloria Ramos, Ramos-Solano’s daughter, said she and her family longed for answers about what exactly happened in the detention center that ultimately led to her father’s death.
“I think my family and I deserve to know the truth of what happened to my dad. I want justice for my dad,” she said.
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As my colleagues Brittny Mejia and Ruben Vives reported this week, Ramos-Solano’s death is the fourth at the Adelanto ICE detention center since September. All four of the men who have died at the facility were Mexican nationals. As a result, Mexican officials said they planned on taking legal action regarding the treatment of its citizens.
The 52-year-old Mexican national is the 14th person to die in ICE custody so far this year. In 2025, the death toll was 33.
ICE said in an earlier statement to The Times that Ramos-Solano had received consistent medical care for several chronic conditions since his detention in February.
This all played out as the Adelanto facility is facing a federal class-action lawsuit alleging inhumane conditions.
In Texas, the Dilley Immigration Processing Center recently made headlines after a litany of celebrities — including Madonna, Pedro Pascal, Melissa Barrera, Ms. Rachel, America Ferrera and Diego Luna — called for its closure in an open letter.
The Trump administration has housed hundreds of detained families for months at the resurrected south Texas center.
The facility first opened during the Obama administration in 2014 and was closed by the Biden administration in June 2024. However, as immigration forces have ramped up since the start of Trump’s second presidency, Dilley was reopened last spring.
The detention center made news this year when Liam Conejo Ramos — the 5-year-old from Minnesota who was famously photographed wearing a bunny hat and Spider-Man backpack while detained by ICE agents — and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, were taken there in January. The duo was released within two weeks of arrival, but many other families have faced much worse fates.
Notably, the center is holding children beyond the 20-day limit set by a long-standing court order. The number of children held at Dilley has fluctuated wildly, with a recent count putting it at 85 kids, but prior reports claim that as many as 280 children were detained there.
The Associated Press reported that families at the detention facility claimed they haven’t had access to adequate physical and mental healthcare, while being served spoiled food and not having reliable sources of clean water. A 13-year-old girl attempted suicide at the center after staff withheld her prescription anxiety medications.
ICE officials have consistently maintained that they provide adequate services to all detained individuals.
“Children held in immigration detention endure trauma, neglect and conditions that violate basic standards of health, safety, dignity and human rights,” read the celebrity-backed open letter. “Court filings of abuse against children have included refusals to provide clean water, rotten food contaminated with worms, dangerous medical neglect, sleep deprivation, denial of legal counsel, the separation of children from their families, and retaliation against families protesting the inhumane conditions.”
But beyond calling for the government and CoreCivic, the private prison operator that runs Dilley, to close the detention facility, the letter also called for increased measures to prevent future damage.
“We demand transparency, accountability, and systemic reforms to prevent these abuses from happening anywhere in the United States,” the letter concluded.
As high-profile citizens call for the closure of one center, the government has eyed an empty warehouse in Salt Lake City for a new detention facility.
Last month, it was reported that the Department of Homeland Security had purchased an 833,000-square-foot warehouse in the Utah capital for an approximate price of $145 million.
Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall spoke of the government’s proposed plans for the warehouse in a news release this week after speaking with ICE officials.
“I was told ICE plans for Salt Lake City to host one of its ‘mega centers,’ with capacity for approximately 7,500 to 10,000 individuals,” Mendenhall said. “My position on this facility has not changed. I continue to share the deep concerns of many of our neighbors related to public safety, air quality and potential impacts to the Great Salt Lake due to increased water use.”
She also indicated that ICE officials expect to begin work on the facility “in the weeks and months ahead.”
(Jackie Rivera / For The Times; Martina Ibáñez-Baldor / Los Angeles Times)
Arizona officially does away with César Chávez Day
On April 1, Democratic Ariz Gov. Katie Hobbs signed a bill that officially stripped March 31 of its holiday status in honor of César Chávez. The labor leader was born in Yuma, Ariz., on March 31, 1927.
The move came weeks after a bombshell investigation by the New York Times uncovered allegations that Chávez sexually assaulted two underage girls in the 1970s, as well as his fellow United Farm Workers of America co-founder, Dolores Huerta.
“While I know signing this bill won’t erase the pain, my thoughts are with the victims and everyone affected,” Hobbs said in a statement. “I’m working with community leaders to find meaningful ways to honor and celebrate our farmworker community and their continued contributions to the state of Arizona.”
Like in L.A., the Phoenix City Council kept the holiday recognition but formally changed the name of the day to Farmworkers Day. In Tucson, city officials decided to not recognize March 31 as a holiday and now recognize March 30 as Dolores Huerta Day.
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Unless otherwise noted, stories below were published by the Los Angeles Times.
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