A Day of the Dead altar at Otay Mesa Detention Center

Pedro Rios, San Diego Program Director for the American Friends Service Committee, speaking at the Day of the Dead memorial outside the Otay Mesa Detention Center

As the sun set on October 29, immigrant activists set up a Day of the Dead altar outside the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego. Usually, these altars honor departed relatives. This one was for the 21 migrants who have died in ICE custody this year.

Each of their names were written on a placard above a flickering candle and a painted monarch butterfly, the symbol of migration. The vigil was organized by Friends of Friendship Park, along with the American Friends Service Committee, Detention Resistance, and Free Them All San Diego.

Roughly thirty people from across San Diego came to take part, helping piece together the altar as security guards looked on from the detention center’s edge. At the center of it all was Nanzi Muro—activist, artist, artivist—a volunteer with Friends of Friendship Park, the coalition fighting to keep the westernmost reach of the border open to the public.

“We were in charge of bringing a lot of the art and just putting it together,” she said.  

Muro noted the difference between last year’s event and this year’s: “There's more community members.”

A Day of the Dead Memorial for fallen migrants on the US-Mexico border wall

At 6 p.m., Pedro Rios, San Diego Program Director for the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), spoke into a microphone before community members and press gathered near the altar.

“The concern that we have is one, that people are suffering under these conditions, and that that suffering has led to the loss of life,” said Rios. “Secondly, our organizations here stand for a position where no one should be detained under any conditions, but especially when there are private corporations that are profiting from that human detention.”

Left to right: Memorial candle for migrant, monarch butterfly artwork on memorial with detention center in background, full image of memorial at night Adriana Jasso shouting “No estan solos” into bullhorn

The particular corporation that runs the 40-acre Otay Mesa Detention Center facility is CoreCivic, which, as Rios noted in his remarks, typically makes $170 per day per detainee per day, according to Rios.

“Congress has allowed… a certain number of people being detained. So if that number dropped below the mandated number, CoreCivic would still profit from having empty beds,” Rios continued.

The business of migrant detention likely generates tens of millions of dollars annually for the Otay Mesa facility alone.  

At the Otay Mesa Detention Center, 95% of ICE custody deaths between 2017 and 2021 were deemed preventable, according to the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General (DHS OIG) and independent medical reviews commissioned by the nonprofit Project on Government Oversight (POGO) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Causes of death were largely due to inadequate medical care. Though the exact number of deaths at Otay Mesa isn’t specified, the facility reflects a broader pattern: 52 migrants died in ICE detention nationwide during that period, amid widespread criticism of poor medical treatment and inhumane conditions that have intensified since the start of the second Trump administration.

Ruth Mendez, a member of the Detention Resistance Collective, also spoke into the microphone. “We are fighting to affirm life with dignity,” she said. “We will continue walking alongside our friends and families, whether it be at the courts in our shared neighborhoods and Barrios, across whatever barrier is placed in the name of greed and exploitation. Today, we observe and are reminded that in the pursuit of a better future.”

A roll call of deceased migrants was read. Adriana Jasso, the AFSC Program Coordinator for the U.S./Mexico Border Program, led a chant on a bullhorn, aimed at the detention facility: “No estan solos” (We are not alone.)

Later, she responded when a reporter asked her about what had changed between this year’s memorial and last year’s at the same site.

“I think one of the things that is different and significant is that we know for a fact that they have increased the number of people that are keeping here,” Jasso said.  “I think one of the other changes is that mandatory detention is applicable to everyone.  It’s a not very strict, administrative approach that really leads to cruelty, because, as it was last year, this facility did not provide the proper medical care.”

Panoramic images of the protest site at Otay Mesa Detention Center