Video Evidence

Carlitos Ricardo Parias had long complained to his family about the quality of drinking water at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center.

In a video call from the Southern California facility where he is detained, he finally showed them proof — a plastic bottle filled with drinking water and what appeared to be worm-like creatures.

Carlos Jurado, Parias’ immigration attorney, shared a copy of the video with The Times. In a phone interview, he said no one should drink something like it.

“The saddest thing is that they hunt us like animals on the streets and they don’t even treat us like animals in jails because no one would give that kind of water to their dog or cat,” Jurado said.

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The immigrant rights’ nonprofit is one of several plaintiffs in a federal civil class action lawsuit against DHS and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement over conditions at the Mojave Desert detention center. Detainees have also launched hunger strikes, claiming subpar conditions.

At least four people have died at the detention center since last year.

Two weeks ago, U.S. District Judge Sunshine S. Sykes granted a renewed motion for a preliminary injunction in the lawsuit, ordering DHS and ICE to make improvements at the facility.

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The federal government has filed an emergency request asking to put the ruling on hold while a higher court considers an appeal.

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“We started looking around and we found them throughout: where we washed our hands and the showers,” he said, adding that the critters looked like gusanitos — little worms.

He said the small worm-like creatures he showed in the video came from inside a pair of 10-gallon coolers used by 80 people. He said that water is used for drinking, cooking and making coffee.

Larry Aguilar, 27, a detainee at the Adelanto facility, said in a phone interview that he was the one to tell Parias about the creatures in the water coolers.

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Asked if any other conditions had improved at the facility following the federal court order, Aguilar said, “everything still remains the same.”

“The [drinking] water still takes a long time to get, the meals are still not the best — some of the meals come a little bit raw,” he said, adding staff are also rude to family who visit him.

In the last two months, he said, he and other detainees have not been allowed to go outside. Instead, he said, ICE has them go into a courtyard surrounded by four walls with an open ceiling.

He said staff haven’t told him or others why they’re not allowed to go out in the yard.

“All I really know is that we’ve been locked in here for the last two months without seeing the sun,” he said.