Canadian detained by ICE for 6 months says he's an 'indefinite' prisoner, has no idea when he'll get out
Winnipeg-born Clayton Herman is in California facility, deemed an illegal immigrant due to expired visa
A Winnipeg-born man has been imprisoned in a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centre in the Mojave Desert since October, where he says he's without proper food, medical care and regular showers — and he has no idea when he'll be released.
Clayton Herman, 54, has spent nearly 200 days behind bars in the private, for-profit Adelanto ICE Processing Centre. It's a 1,940-bed facility in California owned by the Geo Group, a U.S. company that, according to its latest annual report, received nearly half its revenue from ICE last year.
Herman says he crossed into the U.S. legally 20 years ago through a U.S. port of entry, but is now before immigration court because he overstayed his visa, which makes him an illegal immigrant.
Because he hasn't been convicted of anything, he isn't serving a sentence, but is instead being detained — meaning he has no idea when he'll be released, he said.
"We are held against our will in grossly inhumane conditions," Herman said from inside the detention centre during a video call with CBC News.
"We are prisoners — you know, indefinite prisoners, is what makes it worse, with no end in sight."
Sharry Aiken, a law professor at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., who specializes in immigration and refugee law, says the deprivation of liberty is the "most extreme form of human rights violation," and unless someone has been convicted of a criminal offence, should only be used in the "most extreme" cases.
"Effectively, detention becomes indefinite, right? Because you don't have a clear indication of when you're going to be released. And that in and of itself is its own kind of torture," Aiken said.
According to ICE press releases, four detainees have died in the Adelanto detention centre since September, and a group of legal advocates recently launched a federal lawsuit alleging "inhumane" conditions at the facility, including mould, insufficient food, lack of proper medical care and "rampant" illness.
Clayton Herman's brother Jordan Herman says communication with Clayton has been difficult, and the family doesn't know what is going on with his case except that it keeps getting put over.
"He's a really free-spirited person," Jordan said in an interview from his home in Calgary. "I'm sure it's killing him, being … locked up like this."
58 Canadians held by ICE
Clayton Herman, who grew up in Winnipeg's Transcona neighbourhood, went to the U.S. 20 years ago and travelled the country extensively, making a living from doing odd jobs for cash. He eventually settled down in Ojai, Calif., with a common-law partner who died in 2021.
Herman, now considered an illegal immigrant due to overstaying his visa, has never been convicted of a criminal offence.
He's one of 58 Canadians being held by ICE as of March, according to U.S. government data.
CBC analyzed ICE data pertaining to Canadians that a U.S. group called the Deportation Data Project shares publicly on its website. The group obtains the data through Freedom of Information Act requests.
The majority of Canadian-born ICE detainees have not been convicted of any crime, according to the data.
Up until 2025, about two-thirds of Canadian ICE detainees were convicted criminals, the data shows, but that has shifted during U.S. President Donald Trump's second term.
While Herman has been detained roughly 200 days, three other Canadians have been detained more than a year.
Herman was detained during a routine check-in with ICE in October — something he had been doing every six months since he was nabbed by immigration officials three and a half years ago, after a friend's wife reported him to ICE.
He says ICE took him in because he had overstayed his visa but released him on his own recognizance. In May of last year, he was forced to wear a VeriWatch — a device that monitors his location.
But he says it malfunctioned because of lack of cellular reception where he lives, which ICE determined was a violation of the terms of his release. That resulted in his detention.
The device and monitoring are provided by BI Electronic Monitoring and Supervision Services, a subsidiary of the Geo Group — the company that owns the Adelanto detention centre.
"In hindsight, if at the time I had known that the company that operates that VeriWatch that they fitted me with is the exact same company which owns this facility I am in, I would have packed my stuff and headed out of the country right away," said Herman.
'A lot of people crack'
Herman has been trying to get out of Adelanto, but his court case keeps getting put off to a future date. He says he was recently denied release on bond.
He has no lawyer because he can't afford one, he said.
For now, Herman has been taking notes about the conditions in Adelanto, including "eight-millimetre-long trees" of black mould all over the north walls when he arrived. Guards cleaned it, but it's creeping back, he said.
After he was detained, he acquired a sinus infection and waited seven weeks before medical staff treated it with antibiotics, and he waited three weeks for prescription cream to treat an itchy skin condition that erupted in his first month in the facility, he said.
"I kept putting in requests to the medics to be seen for it," said Herman.
He's also been living with a cavity in one of his front teeth because the only treatment he was offered was pulling it — he was told fillings are not offered until a detainee has spent six months behind bars, he said.
But Herman considers himself lucky because he is otherwise healthy. He saw a detainee with diabetes go without their medication, and a man who passed out and hit his head on the floor was heaved into a wheelchair while unconscious, "with his head rolling around," Herman said.
He's become hardened to seeing "this type of thing on a daily basis, because you would go insane if you let it emotionally affect you constantly," he said.
He's also been served mouldy bread, and "really awful mystery lunch meat" is frequently on the menu, Herman said.
Meals aren't served on a regular schedule, and lights out and on times are also variable, disrupting sleep patterns, he said. Laundry days are often delayed, which means sleeping on a thin rubber mattress without a sheet.
When detainees' laundry bags come back, Herman says clothing is damp, which creates mould.
The only thing that does operate on a regular schedule are head counts, according to Herman, which occur four times a day.
But he believes he handles the hardships better than most.
"A lot of people crack. Some people have been here a while, and then just broke down and just decided no matter what they face in their country, just self-deport, because they just don't want to be in here another day."
Class-action lawsuit
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement referred CBC's questions about the Adelanto facility to the Geo Group.
"In all instances our support services are monitored by ICE … to ensure compliance with ICE's detention standards and contract requirements regarding the treatment and services ICE detainees receive," said a statement emailed from the Geo Group's director of corporate relations, Christopher V. Ferreira.
The company says Geo Group provides around-the-clock access to medical care, in-person and virtual legal visitation, general and legal library access, dietitian-approved meals and recreational amenities.
Herman's claims about Adelanto echo those of other detainees, who filed sworn declarations as part of a class-action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California seeking "to end the inhumane and illegal conditions faced by immigrants detained at Adelanto."
It accuses Adelanto of "abusive practices" intended to pressure detainees to give up their "statutory and constitutional rights and send a message to other immigrants to 'self-deport.'"
The lawsuit says as the number of detainees surged from three individuals to nearly 2,000 in the past year, "conditions have rapidly deteriorated."
A longtime Adelanto staff member "warned that the surge was 'dangerous'" and that the facility has inadequate staffing, according to the lawsuit.
The Geo Group's latest annual report says Adelanto was one of four company facilities that started taking in detainees in 2025, which combined with managing a Florida facility, "involved the recruitment, hiring, and training of approximately 2,000 new employees" and generated revenue of approximately $400 million US.
A California congresswoman says American laws are being violated at Adelanto, and people are being injured and dying as a result.
Norma Torres and her staff visit Adelanto every week, meeting with as many of her constituents there as possible, but "red tape" makes helping them a challenge.
"What these detainees are telling us is that when we show up, they clean up the place," the Democratic representative said. "When we show up, they have access to health care and other services that they would normally not have or be delayed."
Global Affairs needs to do more: prof
Herman says he has not spoken to the Canadian consulate in about a month, and he doesn't expect much from them. He does believe Canadian officials may have helped him finally get the antibiotics and prescription cream he needed.
Queen's law professor Aiken said Canadian authorities should request a complete list of all Canadians in ICE custody, including their locations and circumstances.
"I will expect Canadian authorities to ensure that every single one of those individuals was contacted … and connected with support systems to enable them to actually get out of detention," she said.
"That includes access to legal aid and other support services."
In an emailed statement, Global Affairs Canada said it only gets notification about detention by U.S. officials if the detainee gives consent.
Consular services are "tailored to the needs of the situation," and may include advocating when complaints of ill-treatment are received, providing information on engaging a lawyer and helping facilitate a return to Canada, the department said.
Herman said he contacted Global Affairs Canada on his own, but was told they can't pay for a lawyer. He said he did receive general information about legal resources from the department, but that didn’t end up helping him find a lawyer.
He also said he was not given the option to self-deport. He's considering requesting that, but wants to pick up his most cherished possessions — mementoes of his late partner and his two cats, Poquito and Butters.
"I'd be leaving a whole chunk of my life behind … especially the cats,” Herman said. “ They're the last living connection I have to her [his late partner]. That's why they're a big emotional attachment to me … It's like leaving your kids behind. I can't leave them."
In the meantime, he spends his days making calls and trying to get help from friends and family members, but he has no idea when he will get out.
"It's not a good feeling when you don't know, so all you're doing is just every day trying to find a way out," Herman said. "And when you can't, you're finding a way to cope. That's it."
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