The California City immigration detention center in Kern County, run by CoreCivic and housing about 1,600 people, has banned all contact visits since opening in August 2025, forcing families to speak through glass and phones. Detained immigrants and their relatives, including Teresa Reyes and her son Guillermo, a San Jose tattooist, and Allen Tayson, a green card applicant whose wife is pregnant, describe the isolation as part of a broader strategy to pressure people into accepting deportation. A California Department of Justice inspection in November 2025 found the contactless visitation policy appears to contradict CoreCivic's own stated policies. Some families, unable to afford repeated long trips, have stopped visiting in person and now rely on paid video calls instead.