ICE Detainee Films Contaminated Water at Adelanto Facility

You are locked inside a detention center, and the water you are handed to drink has small worm-like creatures floating in it. That is what Carlitos Ricardo Parias, a Los Angeles man detained at the Adelanto ICE facility northeast of LA, says happened to him this week. His attorneys released video footage showing him holding up a plastic bottle filled with water that appeared to contain small pests swimming inside.

What the Video Shows — and What Officials Say

Parias, known on TikTok as Richard LA, described the contents of the bottle as "worms" or "larvae" in a statement translated from Spanish by his attorney Margaret Hellerstein. He said staff handed out the jugs of water to residents for drinking. He poured some into a bottle to preserve it as evidence, then showed it to a relative on a video call. That call was shared with his legal team. "This is what they give us: contaminated water, water with larvae, water with little black worms, which is slowly killing each one of us who are detained here," Parias said. The Department of Homeland Security did not answer specific questions about the video. A DHS spokesperson said the facility uses city of Adelanto water — the same water used by local residents and businesses. Geo Group, the private prison company that operates the facility, did not respond to inquiries. In a separate court filing, DHS lawyers said an independent third party had tested the drinking water and found it clean under FDA standards.

The footage surfaced weeks after a federal judge ordered ICE to guarantee 24-hour access to clean, drinkable water at Adelanto. That order came out of a class-action lawsuit filed by detained people who alleged dangerous conditions — including denied food, contaminated water, and inadequate medical care. Rebecca Brown, supervising attorney at Public Counsel, one of the organizations behind the lawsuit, said the video was "very disturbing" and that detained people had long complained about water quality: murky, bad-tasting, with unknown things in it. Carl Bergquist of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights said the footage raised serious questions about whether the government was complying with the judge's order. The exact source of the water in the video and how widely it was distributed inside the facility remained unclear as of publication.

Parias has been in ICE custody since a federal judge dismissed an assault charge against him. He was originally shot by an ICE agent in October and then charged — a case that drew national attention. He is now facing removal proceedings. His attorney Hellerstein said: "When I saw the video, I was horrified and disgusted. This is video evidence. They can't just sweep it under the rug."

What to Do If You or Someone You Know Is Detained at Adelanto

• Document everything. If you see unsafe conditions — contaminated water, denied food, lack of medical care — write it down with dates and details, or ask a family member to keep records from outside.
• Contact an immigration attorney or a nonprofit legal organization immediately. Groups like Public Counsel and the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights are actively involved in the Adelanto class-action case and may be able to help.
• If you are a family member on the outside, you can report unsafe detention conditions to the DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) online or by phone.
• Ask your attorney whether the ongoing class-action lawsuit against Adelanto applies to your situation — detained people at that facility may have rights under the court's existing order.

Related: our step-by-step guide — “Your Rights During an ICE Encounter”.