Kern County

The Trump administration is trying to lock down immigration detention capacity in California despite opposition from the state's Democratic leaders.

Immigrant detainees work for $1 a day inside a Geo Group facility in the San Joaquin Valley. The company settled a state complaint over conditions inside.

Private prison company CoreCivic will continue operating two large ICE detention centers in California after selling the properties to the Department of Homeland Security.

The Trump administration immigration crackdown swelled the population inside California's immigrant detention centers. State investigators in a report described strained medical resources inside the sites.

California now has eight ICE detention centers. Two opened since President Trump took office in 2025, with both operating in former state prisons.

After 2024 losses, Democrats split on strategy: move to the middle or embrace economic populism. A Central Valley congressional race encapsulates the divide.

California Democratic Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff visited the newest and largest ICE detention center in the state, a former prison in Kern County. CoreCivic operates this site.

In the four counties where Immigration and Customs Enforcement has detention facilities, only one county health department conducts the kind of inspections that were explicitly allowed under a 2024 California law.

A set of laws Gov. Gavin Newsom signed today extends California clean-energy programs while taking steps to shore up oil and gas production. It also opens the door to a Western energy grid.

Lawmakers just enabled fast-tracking of new oil drilling permits in Kern County. Gas prices are mainly moved by other economic forces.