Attorneys representing Carlitos Ricardo Parias, a detainee at the Adelanto Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in California, have released video footage showing a bottle of water from inside the detention center containing what appear to be worm-like creatures.
The brief, grainy clip was shared by Margaret Hellerstein, one of Parias’s attorneys, who confirmed it was filmed during the current week. The footage surfaced weeks after a federal judge ordered ICE to provide detainees at Adelanto with 24-hour access to clean, potable drinking water.
Parias, in a statement translated from Spanish, said, “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. We need proper drinking water, better treatment.”
Rebecca Brown, supervising attorney at Public Counsel—a public interest law firm involved in the lawsuit—called the video “very disturbing” and said the firm is investigating. Brown noted that detainees have long complained about water quality, describing it as murky, tasting terrible, and containing unknown substances.
Carl Bergquist, counsel with the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, another group representing the plaintiffs, expressed concern over the footage and questioned whether the government is complying with the judge’s order to provide clean water.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not respond to repeated inquiries about the video. However, DHS lawyers stated in a recent filing challenging the judge’s order that the drinking water at the facility is sourced from the city of Adelanto and has been sampled and tested by an independent third party, meeting Food and Drug Administration (FDA) standards.
The controversy highlights ongoing disputes over conditions in ICE detention centers and the adequacy of measures to ensure detainees' health and safety.
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