Sexual harassment and abuse by guards are rampant at Golden State Annex, an immigration detention center overseen by the San Francisco office of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to six former and current detainees.
The complaints were compiled in a letter by the Asian Law Caucus and sent to the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties on Tuesday. The letter includes allegations that guards working for the private prison contractor GEO Group, which operates the center, have routinely sexually abused inmates, including through inappropriate physical contact, requests for sexual favors, and serious sexual harassment, along with threats and intimidation.
The letter also alleges that guards retaliated against a transgender inmate for filing a complaint under the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act.
This is not the first time GEO Group, a Florida-based prison profiteer that operates six immigration detention centers in California, has come under fire for similar issues. It has been the subject of multiple accusations of misconduct at its facilities, including forcing detainees to work for extremely low wages, failing to maintain sanitary conditions, and sexual abuse. The state of California is already investigating potential workplace violations at Golden State Annex.
The new allegations paint a picture of GEO Group staff and detention officers waging campaigns of systematic harassment against specific parties, often due to their unique status as LGBT people. Some report being ridiculed, while others say they were targeted for exploitation.
One gay couple, using the pseudonyms “Mr. B” and “Mr. T,” allege that during their detention at Golden State Annex from February 2024 to April 2024, they were targets of repeated sexual harassment from an unnamed supervisor, identified in their complaint as a lieutenant officer.
The duo rejected repeated sexual advances from the lieutenant, who consequently threatened to split them into two different housing units if they did not comply — only to later state he was “kidding.” In one instance, the lieutenant pressured “Mr. T” by making lewd gestures while asking him whether he would provide intercourse or oral sex. The officer also allegedly made sexually threatening comments to “Mr. B,” including telling him “you belong to me.”
Another complainant, Loba Lovos Mendez, says she has been subject to humiliation tactics and thrown into solitary confinement for attempting to report sexual abuse and general violations in the facility. Lovos Mendez, who identifies as transfeminine, has been detained at Golden State Annex since January 2024.
Despite her initial fears of harassment in a male-segregated general population housing unit, the letter notes that Lovos Mendez has “formed friendships with, and feels supported by, other detained individuals in her housing unit.”
In her complaint, she accuses GEO staff of purposefully misgendering her and says male guards used the pretense of pat-downs to grope her breasts and genitals. The letter also says Lovos Mendez has filed dozens of grievances about the conditions at Golden State Annex, and believes that GEO staff are retaliating against her for it.
Notably, she was placed in solitary confinement after reporting that GEO staff made her feel unsafe. GEO staff allegedly justified the move by claiming she had requested it for her own protection — but Lovos Mendez says she had repeatedly notified officers that she did not want to move into solitary, and in fact felt safer in general-population housing.
“During her approximately 24 days in solitary confinement, Mx. Lovos Mendez suffered significant further retaliation and deprivation… [GEO staff] cut off the water supply to her toilet, forcing her to go up to twelve hours without flushing, and eat her meals while smelling her own feces and urine,” the complaint says.
GEO owns more than 100 private prisons and detention centers across the U.S., South Africa, and Australia, comprising more than 82,000 beds. Detainees at Golden State Annex and Mesa Verde ICE Processing Facility, located in Bakersfield and also overseen by the SF ICE office, are currently waging a labor strike and initiated multiple rounds of hunger strikes this year over claims of violence and abuse from officers. Overall, hundreds of detained immigrants have reported sexual abuse at ICE detention centers, and investigations have found a pattern of both private staff and ICE ignoring accusations.
Immigrant justice groups, advocates, and people formerly detained by ICE are planning to gather at the San Francisco ICE office at 630 Sansome St. on Wednesday, Aug. 28, calling on new acting Field Office Director Polly Kaiser to address the complaints.
