The private prison, which previously held state inmates, began housing detained migrants at the end of August and is operated by Tennessee-based CoreCivic.

The detention center is already dealing with the kind of concerns that have been rampant in other facilities. Immigration attorneys with clients inside said detainees’ recent sit-ins and hunger strikes have resulted in officers entering cells in riot gear and putting at least four inmates in solitary confinement.

On the outside, California City has also been thrust into chaos. The center is operating without the locally issued permits city leaders say state law requires.

“It all happened in the cover of darkness,” said California City Mayor Marquette Hawkins. The facility has already come to define his first nine months in office over just a few weeks.

The city said it got no notice the center would begin housing detainees. When rumblings of the center opening began, anti-ICE protestors started showing up. They gained numbers throughout the summer. Now, once sparsely attended City Council meetings have become packed five-hour marathons brimming with public commenters — many of them come from Bakersfield, other corners of Kern County and L.A.

One after another, they have protested the center, questioned City Council members or staff, pointed out missing protocols and possible noncompliance with state laws, and pleaded with officials to stand up to Trump and ICE.

Since the center opened, the Council has not included it on its meeting agendas — something critics say prevents any meaningful conversation. Without an item agendized, Council members can’t engage in back-and-forth with speakers.

“The public is in the dark,” Rosa Lopez, an organizer with American Civil Liberties Union, told the City Council on Tuesday. “It’s deeply concerning and appalling that CoreCivic is actively operating … profiting by disregarding the rules that every other business in the city is required to follow.”

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