{"id":212267,"date":"2026-05-31T20:23:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T20:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/dire-conditions-at-ice-facility-severely-violate-human-rights-lawsuit-claims-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T20:23:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T20:23:14","slug":"dire-conditions-at-ice-facility-severely-violate-human-rights-lawsuit-claims-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/dire-conditions-at-ice-facility-severely-violate-human-rights-lawsuit-claims-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Dire\u2019 conditions at ICE facility severely violate human rights, lawsuit claims – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

At US\u2019s largest immigration center, Texas\u2019s Camp East Montana, plaintiffs allege \u2018dangerous and abusive\u2019 situation
The first lawsuit<\/a> relating to the largest immigration detention facility in the US was filed early on Saturday against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE<\/a>), accusing the agency of \u201cdire\u201d conditions that severely violate the human and constitutional rights of those locked up at the camp in Texas<\/a>.
A clutch of legal organizations is suing via a class-action complaint, listing four detainees as plaintiffs for themselves and on behalf of all those currently held as civil detainees at Camp East Montana or who will be held there in the future.
The facility is a sprawling tent camp in the desert on El Paso\u2019s Fort Bliss military base, where the federal government has confined immigrants since last August, when it swiftly erected the tents.
The complaint alleges that conditions at the camp are \u201cdangerous and abusive\u201d as well as \u201csqualid\u201d for those detained, with injustices including, according to the lawsuit:
\u201c[a]bhorrent medical and mental health care\u201d;
\u201cinappropriate use of force\u201d;
\u201cindiscriminate use of solitary confinement\u201d;
\u201cterrible, rotten, spoiled and inadequate\u201d food;
\u201coutbreaks of disease\u201d;
\u201cunsanitary living conditions\u201d;
\u201csexual harassment by guards\u201d.
The Guardian reached out to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the parent agency<\/a> of ICE, and to ICE for comment. Late Saturday, a DHS spokesperson replied with a lengthy statement denying all accusations that proper medical care and food had been withheld from detainees, disputing there had been a spike in deaths in ICE custody, and asserting \u201cclaims that there are \u2018inhumane\u2019 conditions at Camp East Montana are categorically false. No detainees are being beaten or abused.\u201d
\u201cICE has higher detention standards than most US prisons that hold actual US citizens,\u201d said the spokesperson, who did not provide their name.
\u201cAs of March 12, there are no active measles cases at the Camp East Montana detention facility in El Paso, Texas<\/a>,\u201d the spokesperson added. \u201cPreviously, on March 3, 2026, the Texas Department of Health confirmed active measles infections of 14 detainees at Camp East Montana in Texas. ICE Health Services Corps immediately took steps to quarantine and control further spread and infection.\u201d
\u201cIn the ten months that it has been operational, the facility has become notorious for flagrant human rights abuses that people endure during their detention \u2013 they are confined to windowless enclosures in tents and suffer egregious physical abuse by guards,\u201d the lawsuit alleges.
It continues to allege that conditions include: \u201cAbhorrent medical and mental health care, including for people with chronic conditions like cancer and HIV, indiscriminate use of solitary confinement to punish and silence victims of guard abuse, and other flagrant constitutional violations, including exposure to measles, tuberculosis, and other diseases. Not even a year in, there already have been three reported deaths at Camp East Montana.\u201d
The class-action complaint was filed in federal court in El Paso, Texas, by a group of advocacy organizations representing the detainee plaintiffs Gerald Akari Angye, Navdeep, Erik Ivan Rodriguez Flores and ZOR (a pseudonym) \u201con their own behalf and on behalf of others similarly situated\u201d at the ICE detention facility.
The plaintiffs are suing the DHS and its secretary, Markwayne Mullin; ICE and its acting director, Todd Lyons; the acting director of the ICE field office in El Paso, Marisa Flores, and the assistant field office director there, Angel Garite; the Pentagon; and the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth<\/a>.
With an average of 2,505 people<\/a> in custody on any given day so far this fiscal year, and with a capacity to hold up to 5,000 people, Camp East Montana has quickly become emblematic of Donald Trump\u2019s rapid expansion of immigration detention \u2013 and the sudden surge<\/a> in deaths that has followed in facilities across the US, including a significant<\/a> number of suicides<\/a>.
\u201cCamp East Montana is part of a broader effort by \u2026 ICE to ramp up enforcement across the country, using increasingly aggressive tactics, while simultaneously expanding its detention network, pouring tens of billions of taxpayer dollars into new facilities,\u201d the lawsuit states.
It adds: \u201cAt the same time, Defendant ICE has gutted the government watchdog agencies that are supposed to ensure minimally adequate conditions in those facilities while also preventing members of Congress from conducting statutorily authorized visits.\u201d
DHS spokespersons have previously denied<\/a> allegations made about poor conditions at Camp East Montana, which have been well-documented. In relation to the poor quality and quantity of food, an inappropriate level of medical care, a dangerous environment, and inadequate access to lawyers, the DHS has said that all such accusations are \u201cunequivocally false\u201d.
Plaintiff Gerald Akari Angye is originally from Cameroon and said he had experienced torture in the past in the west African country.
But he expressed shock at his conditions in detention at Camp East Montana, in a statement released on his behalf by the Beyond Borders Program of the Texas Civil Rights Project, one of the groups that filed the lawsuit on Saturday.
\u201cI never thought I would experience such severely violent treatment by guards here in the United States of America. 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,\u201d he said.
The 78-page lawsuit alleges that he was \u201cseverely beaten\u201d by guards for insisting on speaking to an attorney before signing documents, that he ended up in the hospital and needed a wheelchair, then was put in \u201can isolated cell\u201d after being discharged from the hospital back to the camp, and that he has coughed up blood because of the dust.
People report that in the tents there is an ever-present smell of urine, feces and body odor because of the filthy, cramped conditions, the lawsuit states, also alleging that \u201cguards touch people sexually without consent with no accountability\u201d, especially during frequent pat-down body searches.
It added that those detained had reported they were starting to mentally deteriorate, no longer feeling human and contemplating suicide, while alleging they were suffering \u201cwithout any meaningful and consistent psychological support\u201d.
It further added: \u201cSome who cannot take it any more ask to be deported, giving up their chance to stay with their families in the United States where they have lived for decades.\u201d
It alleges, as the Guardian recently reported<\/a>, that \u201cpeople struggle to breathe as sand and dust from the desert pours in through the ventilation system and gaps in the shoddy tents they are forced to live in\u201d.
The best public interest journalism relies on first-hand accounts from people in the know. If you have something to share on this subject, you can contact us confidentially using the following methods:
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If you don\u2019t already have the Guardian app, download it (iOS<\/a>\/Android<\/a>) and go to the menu. Select \u2018Secure Messaging\u2019.
Our guide at theguardian.com\/tips<\/a> lists several ways to contact us securely, and discusses the pros and cons of each. 
Meanwhile, the lawsuit states that only 20% of those detained at Camp East Montana were identified as having a criminal background \u2013 violating immigration law is often a civil offense \u2013 and yet it describes the conditions as punitive, alleging that \u201cthe cruelty of this system is by design\u201d, to stand as a threat to immigrants and \u201cstrike fear\u201d into people, hoping they will abandon their legal claims to stay in the US.
The lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, the ACLU, Human Rights Watch and the law firm Farella Braun + Martel LLP, as well as the Texas Civil Rights Project. Attorneys allege violations of the fifth amendment to the US constitution as well as the Administrative Procedure Act.
Kyle Virgien, senior staff attorney at the ACLU\u2019s National Prison Project, called the facility \u201ca civil rights catastrophe\u201d.
The lawsuit seeks accountability and justice, the groups said.
\u201cCamp East Montana has had far too many dangerous and deadly consequences,\u201d said Rochelle Garza, president of the Texas Civil Rights Project, adding that justice is sought for \u201cthose whose lives have been lost and detainees who have been subjected to outrageous conditions, complete lack of medical care and stripped of their dignity without a second thought\u201d.
Joanna Walters contributed additional reporting<\/em><\/p>\n

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At US\u2019s largest immigration center, Texas\u2019s Camp East Montana, plaintiffs allege \u2018dangerous and abusive\u2019 situationThe first lawsuit relating to the largest immigration detention facility in the US was filed early on Saturday against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), accusing the agency of \u201cdire\u201d conditions that severely violate the human and constitutional rights of those locked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":212268,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-212267","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}