ICE detention center rape calls are not investigated by California police

from Wendy Fry and Nigel DuaraCalMatters

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San Diego County sheriff’s officials failed to investigate at least seven reported sexual assaults at the private Otay Mesa immigration detention center in 2025, and records show the agency ceded control of the cases to civilian administrators hired by the nation’s largest for-profit prison contractor.

Under 2020 memorandum of understanding between the sheriff’s department and CoreCivic, Detention Center Warden Christopher LaRose has the discretion to investigate allegations of rape at the facility, which currently houses just under 1,500 federal immigration detainees, most of whom are in custody awaiting hearings and have not been convicted of a crime.

CalMatters obtained the memo after requesting additional information about the alleged rapes and four attempted sexual assaults through a California Public Records Act request. While a sheriff’s spokesman said the agency is not investigating those cases, he said he could not release additional records because they are part of a “law enforcement investigation.”

CoreCivic representatives did not respond to repeated requests for comment for this story.

The company operates the detention center under contract with the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. ICE officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Seven private managed immigration detention centers operate in California, with CoreCivic having contracts for two of them. It could not immediately be determined whether other detention centers have similar agreements with local law enforcement.

“We are appalled, but not surprised, to learn that multiple sexual assaults have gone uninvestigated at a CoreCivic facility,” said Susan Beatty, senior staff attorney at the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice advocacy group.

“Local and state law enforcement agencies have a responsibility to use their authority to protect the rights of Californians in custody and to hold accountable both ICE and the private prison companies that profit billions of taxpayer dollars to incarcerate immigrants in our state.”

On its website, CoreCivic states that it has a “zero tolerance” policy against all forms of sexual assault and harassment. “CoreCivic has outlined an aggressive plan detailing the efforts we take to prevent, detect and respond to all allegations of conduct that falls into any category,” the company said.

A 2022 audit by the outside company Creative Corrections found the facility met all federal standards to prevent sexual assault.

San Diego County Board of Supervisors Chair Terra Lawson-Remmer said she plans to question San Diego County Sheriff Kelly Martinez at a hearing Tuesday night about ICE transfers from county jails.

“I don’t have a lot of confidence at all in CoreCivic’s ability to investigate these very serious allegations,” she said earlier this month.

San Diego County is in the midst of a separate legal battle with CoreCivic over the Otay Mesa Detention Center. In a lawsuit filed this month, the county alleged that the Trump administration and Tennessee-based CoreCivic iillegally blocked a public health inspection from the Otay Mesa Detention Center. According to the lawsuit, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement initially allowed county officials to enter the facility, but reversed that decision when the inspection team arrived.

In total, there were 142 calls for service to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department for Otay Mesa Detention Center in 2024. Fourteen 14 were identified as related to the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), a 2003 federal law designed to prevent, detect, and respond to sexual abuse and harassment in correctional facilities.

Last year there were 159 calls for service at the Otay Mesa facility. Twenty-one calls were related to the Prison Rape Elimination Act, and of these, seven were allegations of rape.

CalMatters used a Public Records Act request to obtain a digital log generated by 911 dispatchers and 911 operators for 2024 and 2025.

CalMatters attempted to obtain additional records of sexual assault incidents and attempted sexual assault, such as the audio recordings of the 911 calls and the full dispatch log, but the sheriff’s department declined to provide them, saying the records are “records of a law enforcement investigation or any investigative or protective files collected by a law enforcement agency are exempt from disclosure.”

Records obtained by CalMatters did not indicate whether the victims were detainees or officers. Likewise, the records provide no clues as to the perpetrators.

The department’s MOU with CoreCivic was signed and dated by former San Diego Sheriff Bill Gore in 2020.

“Under the MOU … the facility warden is responsible for investigating any allegation of sexual assault or abuse,” said Lt. David Collins, director of media relations for the sheriff’s department. Collins referred further questions about the incidents to CoreCivic.

He said CoreCivic “did not request our involvement” for any cases last year.

“Because the Sheriff’s Office has not initiated criminal investigations, no reports have been sent to the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office for consideration of charges,” he said.

If lawmakers had investigated, the MOU would have required them to turn their findings over to CoreCivic.

“Upon completion/completion of an investigation, the Investigating Agency will forward a copy of the investigation report to the Repository Mechanism as part of the Mechanism’s record-keeping requirements,” the Memorandum states.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and is republished under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license.