Six years after leaving a California immigration detention facility, Wilfredo Gonzalez Mena sleeps with his back propped up by pillows to avoid gasping for air, blaming his lasting health problems on the 10 months he spent in custody at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center. Gonzalez Mena is one of six named plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit filed in 2023 over the facility’s use of a concentrated disinfectant, and he is expected to secure a six-figure payout under a proposed settlement granted preliminary approval on Sept. 25 by a federal judge in Riverside.
The settlement covers approximately 2,700 individuals detained at the facility, located about 60 miles northeast of Los Angeles, between March 11 and Sept. 30, 2020. During that timeframe, guards sprayed the chemical solution, known as HDQ Neutral, nearly around the clock to combat COVID-19. “When you least expected it, you would feel the mist,” Gonzalez Mena said. “They would spray us like we were animals.”
GEO Group and Spartan Chemical Acknowledge Disinfectant Risks
The Adelanto facility is operated by the GEO Group, a Florida-based private prison corporation that has faced long-standing criticism regarding conditions at its immigrant detention centers and has resisted California oversight laws. Under the terms of the proposed settlement, the GEO Group and Spartan Chemical Co. Inc., the manufacturer of HDQ Neutral, acknowledged that the product—which is classified as a pesticide—can cause blistering, chemical burns, vomiting, permanent eye damage, and injury to the respiratory tract, throat, and stomach. Class members who were not named plaintiffs can now use these findings to pursue their own individual lawsuits.
Neither the GEO Group nor the Department of Homeland Security responded to requests for comment regarding the agreement. When the lawsuit was initially filed, the GEO Group denied the allegations, maintaining that cleaning supplies were used safely and securely in accordance with manufacturer guidelines and sanitation standards. At the time, a company spokesperson characterized the claims as part of a politically motivated campaign to target ICE contractors and abolish federal immigration detention. The corporation later replaced HDQ Neutral with an alternative cleaning product.
Attorneys representing the former detainees through the Los Angeles-based civil rights nonprofit Trial Impact Project hailed the resolution as a legal victory. Sara Haji, executive director of the organization, noted that the case runs parallel to other pending litigation addressing medical neglect, retaliation, and substandard food and water. “When a company like GEO settles instead of defending itself at trial, and when it admits that the pesticide it sprayed everywhere can cause serious health problems, it should cause us all to sit up and pay attention to what detained people have been telling us about the everyday cruelty of immigration detention,” Haji said.
GEO Group Sprayed Concentrated Solution Despite Warning Labels
The lawsuit asserted that the GEO Group engaged in a months-long poisoning of detainees by spraying HDQ Neutral directly into the air and across wide surfaces. While staff had utilized the product for routine cleaning before the pandemic, they began blanketing the facility with the concentrated solution as COVID-19 spread. Detainees immediately reported adverse reactions, including nosebleeds, headaches, and dizziness. Spartan Chemical’s warning labels indicate that inappropriate exposure can trigger these effects, while long-term exposure has been linked to asthma, reproductive issues, and birth defects in laboratory animal studies.
Federal oversight followed the complaints. In 2021, the Environmental Protection Agency determined that the GEO Group had violated federal law by misusing HDQ Neutral. Investigators found that staff and detainees were instructed to apply the pesticide as often as every 30 minutes without proper ventilation, using a dilution rate of two ounces per gallon of water—double the maximum concentration permitted for disinfection. In September 2021, a federal judge ordered the company to halt the use of HDQ Neutral at Adelanto, writing that it had been deployed with a “callous disregard for the safety of Adelanto’s detainees.”
Discovery documents revealed internal skepticism over the chemical’s safety. More than 100,000 pages of records included an email from an Adelanto nurse to Wendy Baca, then acting health services administrator for medical contractor Wellpath, reporting that patients were arriving with headaches, rashes, and blisters attributed to the spraying. The nurse added that staff members had reported feeling burned after touching their skin with gloves used to handle the chemical. Baca forwarded the message to the GEO Group’s chief of security with a dismissive reply asking him to look into it and reminding staff “not to put metal into light sockets, run with scissors, or anything usually avoided with a little common sense.”
Mark Anthony Ferretiz, a former GEO Group cook supervisor who worked at the facility for 14 years until March 2025, stated in a declaration that employees were directed to spray the red chemical “like Lysol.” “I could taste the spray in my mouth when I used it, and it felt heavy in my lungs,” he wrote, adding that a representative from HD Supply who reviewed the usage frequency warned staff that the substance was “rat poison” and could prove fatal.
Lasting Fallout for Former Detainees
Years after his release, Gonzalez Mena continues to manage physical and psychological repercussions. The former long-haul truck driver stated that his health deteriorated to the point where he could no longer pass required physical assessments due to lasting vision and breathing impairments, forcing him to shift to online resale work. “My wife says that after I was released, I didn’t go back to being the same person,” he said. “I’ve had depression and I often dream that I am there, in that place, and I want to get out.”
