What life is like inside California’s largest immigration detention center

ss at least 11 states in just one week in February.

When immigrants are arrested in California, many are sent to the , the largest immigration detention center in the state.

There, detainees await immediate deportation or hearings that will determine their immigration status. Reuters photographer Lucy Nicholson recently went inside to see what life is like for the detained immigrants.

Here's what she found.

The Adelanto immigration detention center is located about 85 miles northeast of Los Angeles, California.

After being arrested by ICE agents, more than 1,800 immigrants await hearings or deportations there. About 240 of the detainees at Adelanto are women.

Roberto Galan, a 33-year-old Salvadoran immigrant, paid a trafficker $3,000 to smuggle him into the US from El Salvador as a teenager in 1997.

He has been deported twice since then, but has also returned to the US twice. Now, he is going through deportation proceedings at the Adelanto center, where he has been in custody for nearly two years.

"I don't want them to deport me ... I want to stay in the United States with my family," Galan told Reuters. Referring to his mother, wife, and two young children, who live in the US legally, he added, "They feel bad because we want to live together."

A razor wire surrounds the perimeter of the facility.

At the entrance, there is a wall of handcuffs for the detention center's employees to use.

When the immigrants check in, they must give up their on-hand possessions. They're then given uniforms and basic toiletries, like toilet paper and a bath towel.

Red uniforms are worn by "high risk" detainees, who have spent time in state or federal prison. Other immigrants wear blue, meaning they have no criminal convictions, or orange, which signifies a non-felony crime.

In 2014, the facility underwent an expansion, adding 650 beds and a women's housing unit.

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Detainees chat over meals, which typically consist of rice, refried beans, and mixed veggies.

To pass time, they also play dominoes ...

... or read the paper. In the photo below, a detainee reads a story about a hunger strike at the Tacoma immigration detention center in Washington.

Detainees also have access to an on-site law library, a medical clinic, religious services, and a basketball court.

They're allowed short periods of time with visitors, too.

Like most privately-owned immigration detention centers in the US, the one in Adelanto is run by Florida-based GEO Group Inc.

Though ICE arrests have increased nationwide since Trump took office,

GEO Group is the second largest for-profit prison operator in the US.

In late March and early April, two Adelanto center detainees died under ICE custody, KTLA reported.

Galan expects a decision on his appeal in coming weeks.

"I see people trying to stay here, fight their case for two, three, four years, more than four years, and then [they are] denied everything," he told Reuters.

Additional reporting by Daniel Wallis

What life is like inside California’s largest immigration detention center

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