- Federal lawsuit accuses ICE of operating a detention camp at Fort Bliss with severe medical neglect and abuse leading to three deaths and a measles outbreak.
- Detainees endured violent guard treatment, unsanitary conditions, solitary confinement, and dramatic weight loss from inadequate food.
- One plaintiff from Cameroon reported being beaten by guards and placed in solitary confinement for 15 days after requesting an inhaler.
- DHS denies all allegations, claiming comprehensive medical care and dietitian-approved meals for detainees.
- Advocacy groups describe the camp as a civil rights catastrophe designed to terrorize immigrants into abandoning legal claims.
Civil rights organizations filed a federal lawsuit Friday accusing Immigration and Customs Enforcement of operating a detention camp where detainees suffered severe medical neglect, violent guard abuse and unsanitary conditions that led to at least three deaths and a measles outbreak. The lawsuit targets Camp East Montana, a 5,000-person tent facility at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, which opened in August 2025 and has become the nation's largest immigration detention center.
Lawsuit details extensive allegations
The complaint, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Texas, Texas Civil Rights Project, Human Rights Watch and Farella Braun + Martel LLP, seeks class-action status for all people detained at the camp. The lawsuit alleges that detainees endured months of medical neglect, violent treatment by guards, widespread use of solitary confinement and inadequate food causing dramatic weight loss.
Detainees were also exposed to dust storms through openings in tent walls and unsanitary conditions inside the facility, according to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.
"Camp East Montana is nothing short of a civil rights catastrophe," Kyle Virgien, senior staff attorney at the ACLU's National Prison Project, said in a statement. "We're suing to ensure that no other human being has to endure the inhumane treatment that the Trump administration has inflicted on our clients."
The lawsuit argues conditions violate detainees' Fifth Amendment due process rights and the Administrative Procedure Act.
DHS denies allegations
The Department of Homeland Security rejected accusations involving inadequate medical care, spoiled food, disease outbreaks and physical abuse by guards.
"Ensuring the safety, security, and well-being of individuals in our custody is a top priority at ICE," a DHS spokesperson said in a statement. "Claims that there are 'inhumane' conditions at Camp East Montana are categorically false. No detainees are being beaten or abused."
DHS said all detainees receive comprehensive medical, dental and mental health screenings shortly after arrival, along with 24-hour emergency care. The department also said detainees receive three daily meals approved by certified dietitians.
The lawsuit claims at least 14 detainees contracted measles during a prolonged outbreak. The complaint also cites three deaths at the facility within its first year of operation, including one detainee allegedly beaten to death by guards after requesting an inhaler.
Detainees describe violent treatment
One plaintiff, Gerald Akari Angye, a 35-year-old former high school teacher from Cameroon who fled after being tortured amid a separatist conflict, described being beaten at Camp East Montana.
"I never thought I would experience such severely violent treatment by guards here in the United States of America," Angye said in a statement provided by the civil rights groups. "I have been beaten here and even today, I still have a brace on my hands and wrist. I am in pain and I am scared to be here."
Angye was placed in solitary confinement for 15 days following the beating, according to the lawsuit. The complaint also alleges that people report an ever-present smell of urine, feces and body odor because of filthy, cramped conditions, and that "guards touch people sexually without consent with no accountability."
Advocacy groups demand accountability
The lawsuit follows months of warnings from advocacy groups. In December and May, organizations sent letters to federal officials after interviewing detainees who described ongoing excessive force, abuse and medical neglect.
"Camp East Montana is at the epicenter of the administration's cruel deportation agenda," Savannah Kumar, staff attorney at the ACLU of Texas, said in a statement.
The complaint notes that only 20 percent of detainees at Camp East Montana were identified as having a criminal background, yet conditions are punitive. The lawsuit alleges "the cruelty of this system is by design," intended to threaten immigrants and "strike fear" into people so they abandon legal claims to stay in the United States.
U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, an El Paso Democrat who has been a leading critic of Camp East Montana, called the facility "a purgatory for human beings held there" and vowed to continue demanding its permanent closure.
The camp has a capacity to hold up to 5,000 people and had a daily average of more than 2,500 detainees as of April 2. The facility has held the largest number of detained immigrants so far in fiscal year 2026, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. The organizations behind the lawsuit are seeking court-ordered improvements to conditions, with the case now pending before a federal judge in El Paso.
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