Detained at Adelanto? How Habeas Corpus and Bond Hearings Get People Out of the Adelanto ICE Processing Center

Adelanto is the largest immigration detention center in California, and right now it is one of the most litigated. Roughly 1,700 to 1,800 people are held in its three buildings in the Mojave high desert, about 90 miles northeast of Los Angeles. The federal government bought the complex from the GEO Group on October 5, 2026 for about $950 million, GEO will keep running it through 2034, and a federal judge has had two independent monitors inside since July because of the conditions. Our office represents a large number of people detained there, and the question every family asks first is the same: how do we get him out.

The answer depends on which detention statute ICE is using, and whether a federal judge will agree. This article covers both the bond hearing inside the Adelanto Immigration Court and the habeas corpus petition in Riverside federal court, what each one can and cannot do, and how the two work together. Guidance reviewed October 16, 2026.

Why Adelanto is different from other ICE detention centers

Two facts about geography decide most Adelanto cases before a lawyer writes a word.

First, Adelanto is inside the Ninth Circuit. On July 30, 2026, in Rodriguez Vazquez v. Bostock, the Ninth Circuit held that people who entered the United States without inspection and were later arrested in the interior of the country are not subject to mandatory detention under 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(2)(A). They are held under § 1226(a), which means an immigration judge can hold a bond hearing and set a bond. That ruling binds every immigration judge in California and every federal judge in the Central District. The government's position that all "applicants for admission" can be jailed without bond, announced in a July 8, 2025 ICE memo and adopted by the Board of Immigration Appeals in Matter of Yajure Hurtado, is not the law in the Ninth Circuit today.

Second, Adelanto's federal court is the Central District of California, where Judge Sunshine Sykes decided Maldonado Bautista, the nationwide class action that started with Adelanto detainees. She certified a Bond Eligible Class in late 2025, entered final judgment on December 18, 2025 declaring that class members are detained under § 1226(a), and when the Justice Department told immigration judges to ignore her, she vacated Matter of Yajure Hurtado in February 2026 and called the government's conduct "shameless." The government appealed and the Ninth Circuit temporarily stayed part of that order, but the district court's own view of the statute has never changed, and its judges apply it in individual habeas cases every week.

Put those together and the practical result is this: an Adelanto detainee who crossed the border years ago, was picked up in Los Angeles or the Inland Empire, has no disqualifying criminal conviction, and has no final removal order is entitled to a bond hearing. If ICE or an immigration judge says otherwise, a federal judge in Riverside can order one, or order release outright.

The habeas clock in the Central District: General Order 26-05

Most of what families hear about habeas corpus involves months of waiting. That is true in Louisiana and Mississippi, where ProPublica found judges routinely take three months or more. It is not true at Adelanto. Facing thousands of petitions, the Central District issued General Order 26-05, filed April 1, 2026, which sets a standard schedule for every immigration habeas petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2241:

• Day 0. The petition is filed. The clerk emails it to the U.S. Attorney's Office the same day and issues the scheduling notice. The petitioner can consent at filing to have a magistrate judge decide the whole case; the U.S. Attorney's Office has already given blanket consent, which is why so many Adelanto cases are decided by magistrate judges in days rather than weeks.
• Day 3. The government's lawyer must appear.
• Day 7. The government's answer is due. Any argument that the case should be dismissed has to be in that answer; no separate motion practice.
• Day 10. A represented petitioner's reply is due three days after the answer. The case is then submitted. No hearing is held unless the judge wants one.
• Transfers. While the petition is pending, the government must give at least two court days' notice before moving the person out of the Central District. That provision alone has stopped last-minute transfers to Texas and Louisiana in our cases.

The order also says temporary restraining orders are reserved for imminent harm the schedule cannot handle, such as a removal flight. In practice the schedule is the emergency relief: a decision inside two weeks is faster than most TRO practice.

A public example from the docket: in Jun Geng v. Warden of Adelanto ICE Processing Center, filed in August 2026, the government answered September 4, the reply went in September 5, the parties consented to a magistrate judge on September 22, and on October 5 Magistrate Judge Angela C. C. Viramontes granted the petition and ordered immediate release, the return of property confiscated at arrest, a compliance statement from the government within three days, and a requirement that any future enforcement action comply with due process. Judgment entered the next day.

What we see at Modern Law Group

We handle a steady volume of Adelanto bond and habeas matters, and October 2026 has been typical of what the Central District now does. In one week this month we won three habeas cases for Adelanto detainees. Two of them were straight release orders, not orders for a new bond hearing, and both came in under ten days from the day we filed. The third produced a bond hearing order with the government bearing the burden, which is the next best outcome. Every case turns on its own facts and no lawyer can promise a result, but the pattern is consistent: when the petition is tight, the record shows an interior arrest and no criminal bars, and the government cannot explain why this person is a danger or a flight risk, Central District judges are not keeping people in Adelanto.

A representative situation, not a specific client: a man from Michoacán who entered without inspection in 2009, lives in Fontana with his U.S. citizen wife and three children, works in warehousing, and has one old misdemeanor that is not a § 1226(c) ground. ICE arrested him at a home visit in September and booked him into Adelanto under § 1225(b)(2), no bond. At his first master calendar hearing the immigration judge declined to hear a bond request, citing Yajure Hurtado. We asked for the denial in writing and asked the judge to state the bond he would have set if he had jurisdiction. We filed a habeas petition in Riverside the next morning naming the warden, consented to a magistrate judge, attached the Maldonado judgment and Rodriguez Vazquez, and laid out the family ties, the employment history, and the lack of any flight-risk evidence. The government's answer argued the statute; it did not argue danger. The magistrate judge granted release on day nine.

Who gets a bond hearing at Adelanto, and who does not

The first job in every Adelanto case is to figure out which statute ICE is actually using, because that decides whether you are fighting for a bond hearing or fighting about whether a bond hearing exists.

1. Entered without inspection, arrested inside the country, no disqualifying crime, no prior removal order. This is the Maldonado class and the Rodriguez Vazquez rule. Detention is under 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a). You are entitled to a bond hearing before an immigration judge under 8 C.F.R. § 1003.19, and the judge weighs danger and flight risk under the factors in Matter of Guerra. If the judge refuses to hold the hearing or defers to the BIA, that refusal is the habeas case. Our guide to habeas after a bond denial walks through what the petition has to show.
2. Arrested at or near the border, or placed in expedited removal and passed a credible fear interview. These are § 1225(b)(1) or § 1225(b)(2) cases. The immigration judge has no bond jurisdiction, and the only administrative release is ICE parole under INA § 212(d)(5). Rodriguez Vazquez does not help here. The path is a documented parole request, and when ICE refuses or ignores it, a habeas petition arguing that prolonged detention without any individualized hearing violates due process. We explain that sequence in our article on credible fear, parole, and habeas. In September 2026 the Ninth Circuit allowed a class of asylum seekers arrested inside the country to pursue exactly that due process claim.
3. A conviction on the § 1226(c) list. Controlled substance offenses, firearms offenses, aggravated felonies, two crimes involving moral turpitude. Mandatory detention applies, but the questions whether the conviction really fits the category and whether ICE took custody when the person was released from criminal custody are litigated and winnable. Prolonged § 1226(c) detention without a hearing also raises due process claims the Ninth Circuit takes seriously.
4. A final order of removal. Detention shifts to 8 U.S.C. § 1231. No bond hearing. After six months, if removal is not reasonably foreseeable, Zadvydas v. Davis makes continued detention presumptively unlawful. Our article on Zadvydas habeas when ICE cannot deport you covers the countries and situations where this applies.

Bond hearing or habeas petition: which one first

At Adelanto the answer is usually both, in sequence, and fast. The bond hearing is cheaper and can happen within days of a request. The habeas petition is the tool that makes the bond hearing happen when the immigration judge will not, and it is the only tool that gets a federal judge to look at the detention itself. Our comparison of bond hearings and habeas corpus explains the difference in depth. The Adelanto-specific sequence looks like this:

• File the bond request with the Adelanto Immigration Court the day the attorney is retained, with the evidence package attached.
• If the judge sets bond, pay it and get out. Bonds at Adelanto commonly run from $1,500 to $15,000; the factors that move the number are in our guide to evidence that wins a bond hearing.
• If the judge refuses to hear bond, make the full argument on the record, ask for the alternative bond amount, and get the denial in writing. That document is the ticket to federal court.
• File the habeas petition in the Central District within a day. Consent to a magistrate judge. Ask for release, or in the alternative a bond hearing within seven days with the government bearing the burden.
• If the judge grants bond and ICE still does not release, that is its own habeas case; ICE's automatic stay tactics are covered in our article on ICE refusing release after bond.

Do not wait on a BIA appeal of a bond denial while someone is sitting in Adelanto. The BIA takes months, it is bound by Yajure Hurtado, and a federal judge in Riverside will decide the same question in ten days.

What families should do in the first 48 hours

• Confirm the location and the A-number. The ICE detainee locator shows the facility. Adelanto's address is 10250 Rancho Road, Adelanto, California 92301. Write down the nine-digit A-number; every filing needs it.
• Get a lawyer's G-28 on file immediately. Once counsel is of record, ICE has a harder time moving the person quietly, and the two-court-day transfer notice under General Order 26-05 only protects someone with a petition on file.
• Assemble the bond and habeas evidence the same day. Proof of residence going back years, marriage and birth certificates for U.S. citizen family, tax returns, pay stubs or an employer letter, medical records for the detainee and dependents, letters from community members, any prior immigration filings, and a clean background check or the full criminal history if there is one. The same package serves both the immigration judge and the federal judge.
• Document conditions. Adelanto is under a federal injunction requiring clean water, adequate food, medical care, and four hours of outdoor time, and the court monitor's October report found the facility largely out of compliance. If your relative is being denied medication or water, tell the lawyer; it belongs in the petition and can be reported to the monitors.
• Do not pay a notario or a bond company before a lawyer has looked at the case. If the person is bond-eligible, a lawyer gets the hearing. If the person is not, no bond company can help, and a habeas petition is the only route.
• Keep the family's own records in order. A release order from the Central District usually requires the person to report to ICE and keep the court informed of an address. Have a stable address and a plan for the immigration court case that continues after release. Our guide to what families should do when a loved one is detained covers the longer checklist.

What the Supreme Court case means for Adelanto detainees

On October 1, 2026, the Supreme Court agreed to decide Rhoney v. Barbosa da Cunha, a case from the Second Circuit asking whether § 1225(b)(2)(A) requires mandatory detention of people who are present in the United States without having been admitted. The respondent is a Brazilian man who lived in the country for about twenty years after entering without inspection. The Second and Ninth Circuits say no, § 1226(a) applies; the Fifth and Eighth Circuits say yes. A decision is expected by the end of June 2027.

Until then, Rodriguez Vazquez is the law in California, and judges in the Central District are applying it. That is a reason to move now, not to wait. A habeas petition filed this month will be decided under current Ninth Circuit law. If the Supreme Court later sides with the government, people already released on bond or by court order are in a far better position than people still inside. The 2026 habeas release wave has been built on district courts acting while the appellate fight continues, and the Central District has been among the fastest.

Frequently asked questions

Where is a habeas corpus petition filed for someone held at Adelanto?

In the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Adelanto is in San Bernardino County, which belongs to the court's Eastern Division in Riverside, so the case number begins with 5:26-cv. The petition names the Adelanto warden as the immediate custodian along with ICE and DHS officials, and it is filed under 28 U.S.C. § 2241.

How long does an Adelanto habeas case take?

Under General Order 26-05, the government answers within seven days and the reply is due three days later, and the case is decided on the papers. Decisions in ten to twenty days are common, and we have had release orders in under ten. Cases with a temporary restraining order application or a contested factual record can take longer.

Can someone detained at Adelanto get a bond hearing if ICE says they are an "applicant for admission"?

If the person entered without inspection, was arrested inside the United States rather than at the border, has no conviction on the § 1226(c) list, and has no final removal order, then yes. The Ninth Circuit held in Rodriguez Vazquez v. Bostock on July 30, 2026 that such people are detained under § 1226(a) and are entitled to a bond hearing. If the immigration judge still refuses, a habeas petition in the Central District is the remedy.

What is the Maldonado Bautista class and does it cover Adelanto?

Maldonado Bautista is a nationwide class action decided by Judge Sunshine Sykes in the Central District of California. The class covers noncitizens without status who entered without inspection, were not caught on arrival, and are not held under § 1226(c), § 1225(b)(1), or § 1231. The December 18, 2025 judgment declared class members detained under § 1226(a) and bond-eligible. The case began with Adelanto detainees, and Adelanto detainees who fit the definition are class members.

What happens if ICE tries to transfer my relative out of Adelanto after we file?

Once a habeas petition is pending in the Central District, General Order 26-05 requires the government to give at least two court days' notice to the petitioner, counsel, and the court before moving the person out of the district. That notice gives the lawyer time to ask the judge to block the transfer. Before a petition is on file there is no such protection, which is one reason to file quickly.

Does the Supreme Court's new case stop habeas petitions at Adelanto?

No. The Supreme Court agreed on October 1, 2026 to hear Rhoney v. Barbosa da Cunha, but it has not decided anything, and a decision is not expected before mid-2027. Until then the Ninth Circuit's Rodriguez Vazquez decision controls in California, and the Central District continues to grant petitions under it. Waiting for the Supreme Court means waiting in Adelanto.

How much does an Adelanto immigration bond usually cost?

The legal minimum is $1,500. Immigration judges at Adelanto commonly set bonds between $1,500 and $15,000 depending on criminal history, time in the country, family ties, and the strength of the underlying immigration case. A habeas release order from the federal court often requires no money at all, only reporting conditions.