The parking lot outside the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in Adelanto, Calif. on May 27, 2026.
Photo: Jill Connelly/AP
Somewhere in a sweltering
desert,
cockroaches scurry around the cell of Carlitos Ricardo Parias
. He holds up a plastic bottle, gazing at the
worm-like creatures swimming in his drinking water
. His other
arm is turning purple
from a gunshot wound for which he says he hasn’t received proper medical care.
His gulag isn’t in a distant Soviet or banana republic. It’s about an hour and a half from Disneyland, in a small California town called Adelanto.
After Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers shot and detained Parias last October, the Los Angeles-based journalist will cross 300 days in ICE detention on Monday. His horrifying conditions aren’t unique among immigrant detainees, but Parias’s case is extraordinary. Perhaps no journalist has endured such a sustained sequence of violence, prosecution, and imprisonment at the hands of the U.S. government.
Several American journalists have spent months in jail to protect their sources: New York Times reporter Judith Miller (
85 days in 2005
), writer Vanessa Leggett (
168 days ending 2002
), and freelancer Josh Wolf (
226 days ending in 2007
). Last year, Emmy-winning journalist
Mario Guevara
spent
more than 100 days in immigration detention
before being deported,
prompting national outrage
.
Parias long ago surpassed Wolf’s record for the longest known time a journalist had spent in U.S. custody.
He was already prolific on social media when the immigration enforcement surge began last summer. He worked independently as
Richard Noticias LA
, with over 100,000 followers on TikTok. He built that audience by chasing crime stories across California neighborhoods often overlooked by larger outlets. This
time last year
, the Los Angeles City Council presented him with a
proclamation honoring his efforts
.
Federal authorities say Parias is an undocumented immigrant who had
… [more]
