People detained by ICE describe rights violations at nation’s largest immigration detention center, including severe medical neglect, violence by guards, inhumane conditions. May 30, 2026 10:00 am EL PASO, Texas — Legal organizations sued Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Friday night over inhumane conditions at Camp East Montana, a massive immigration detention tent camp at the Fort Bliss military base in El Paso. The lawsuit and motion for class certification were filed on behalf of four people seeking to represent a class of all others detained at Camp East Montana and is the first lawsuit against the nation’s largest immigration detention center. The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Texas, Texas Civil Rights Project, Human Rights Watch, and the law firm Farella Braun + Martel LLP documented in their filing accounts of horrific rights violations, including: Severe medical neglect and disease outbreaks, including a months-long measles outbreak that infected at least 14 people Violent uses of force by officers against detained immigrants and coercive threats of deportation Excessive and arbitrary use of solitary confinement to punish people for requesting basic needs like medical care or hygiene Inadequate and rancid food that have caused detained people to lose extreme amounts of weight Exposure to dust storms through openings in tent walls that subjects people to respiratory disease Dangerous and unsanitary living conditions in the tent camp, among other rights violations The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas and asks the court to find the conditions at Camp East Montana violate detained people’s Fifth Amendment right to due process and the Administrative Procedure Act. "I have lived through the worst days and months of my life here in ICE detention at Ft. Bliss in El Paso,” said Erik Ivan Rodriguez, a named plaintiff in the lawsuit. “This lawsuit is very important to me and to all the people who are detained here and suffering. There are many good people here who were just looking for a better future. I had to leave my family and country behind because the government was so bad. Sometimes, sadly, I think that these people in power in this country are just as bad. I have suffered a lot during my time here, including experiencing physical violence as officials tried to coerce me to sign deportation papers.” The lawsuit comes after several of the same legal organizations — along with ACLU of New Mexico, Estrella del Paso, Human Rights Watch, Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, and the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center — sent a letter in December 2025 and another in May 2026 to the federal government detailing interviews with dozens of detained people at Camp East Montana, who told lawyers that officers have engaged in a widespread and unreasonable pattern and practice of excessive force, medical neglect, and forcing detainees to endure dehumanizing living conditions. In less than a year since the facility’s opening, there have been three recorded deaths, including that of one man who was beaten to death by guards after asking for his inhaler. “The conditions here in this ICE tent camp in a desert are inhumane and cruel. No human being should ever have to go through this,” added Gerald Akari Angye, also a named plaintiff. “I have already experienced torture in my home country of Cameroon and I 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. No one deserves such cruel treatment. We are all humans and deserve to be treated like it.” The Trump administration hastily opened the sprawling tent camp in August 2025, despite warnings from members of Congress and advocates that the facility would be a humanitarian disaster. The facility is located on the military base formerly used to intern people of Japanese descent during World War II and has the capacity to hold up to 5,000 people, making it the country’s largest immigration detention center. “People detained here at Camp East Montana deserve humane treatment. It feels like we are just political pawns taken from our jobs and families and forced into a temporary tent that is not designed for human life,” said Navdeep, another named plaintiff in the lawsuit. “We could die here, and it feels like no one here would care. With everything happening behind closed doors, I worry the people running this place might cover up the truth about a death or the other injustices that happen here. It’s important for people to know the truth of what is happening here. Being part of this lawsuit is important to me because many people are vulnerable or they become weak because of the conditions here. Even though we come from many different places, we are all human. I want to be a voice for everyone here.” “This place wears people down even after a couple of days and I have been here for over eight months,” added ZOR, a plaintiff in the lawsuit, who is using a pseudonym to protect his privacy. “The way this place is run is lawless. The people who should be upholding the law are ignoring it. The saddest part is seeing families being torn apart. I am one of many parents in here who are missing seeing our children grow up. My largest sorrow is that my young children are also suffering because of my absence from their lives. I want to be part of this lawsuit because I want a better world for my children to live in, one that does not treat a single person the way those of us here have been treated.” Additional quotes from co-counsel are as follows: “Camp East Montana is nothing short of a civil rights catastrophe,” said Kyle Virgien, senior staff attorney at the ACLU’s National Prison Project. “Since the day it opened, the facility has repeatedly made headlines for horrific rights violations and even the deaths of three detained people, yet ICE has still evaded accountability for its conduct. 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.” “Camp East Montana is at the epicenter of the Administration's cruel deportation agenda,” said Savannah Kumar, staff attorney at the ACLU of Texas. “People from across the country have been transported to a military base in the middle of the desert and locked in a tent detention camp plagued by death, outbreaks of disease, and beatings by guards. The lawsuit sheds light on the horrendous conditions the U.S. government has imposed upon people detained at this tent camp. Our clients' experiences add to a record of cruel and inhumane treatment at this site that is layered upon the shameful history of Japanese internment on this land decades prior.” “Camp East Montana has had far too many dangerous and deadly consequences,” said Rochelle Garza, president of the Texas Civil Rights Project. “This lawsuit seeks accountability and justice for those 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. For our clients and their loved ones, the Texas Civil Rights Project and our partners are working to hold the federal government and those behind Camp East Montana accountable for their negligence and harm.” “Farella is proud to stand with these great civil rights organizations to highlight and address the deplorable conditions at Camp East Montana,” said Cynthia Castillo, partner at Farella Braun + Martel LLP. “Every individual, regardless of immigration status, deserves to be treated with basic human dignity. We firmly believe in upholding the rule of law and the Constitution, and we are honored to have this opportunity to support the rights of those detained at Camp East Montana.” The full complaint is available here: https://www.aclu.org/cases/akari-angye-et-al-v-ice?document=Complaint Handwritten statement from Gerald Akari Angye, a named plaintiff, is available here: https://www.aclutx.org/app/uploads/2026/05/Handwritten-Statement-Gerald-Akari-Angye.pdf Handwritten statement from Erik Rodriguez, another named plaintiff, is available here: https://www.aclutx.org/app/uploads/2026/05/Erik-Rodriguez-Press-statement.pdf Press Release Aug 2026 Immigrants' Rights Federal Appeals Court Upholds Rights of Detained Noncitizens to Bond Hearings First Circuit is the seventh appellate court to reject Trump administration's novel application of immigration detention statutes A federal appeals court on Thursday upheld a ruling declaring that the Trump administration is unlawfully denying bond hearings to thousands of people arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in New England. In 2025, the federal government abandoned its 29-year understanding of a 1996 law and announced that millions of noncitizens living in the United States would have no opportunity to ask for release on bond if detained by ICE. This new guidance defies decades of government practices, federal law, and fundamental due-process protections. It also exacerbates longstanding problems with immigration detention, including overcrowding, medical neglect, inadequate nutrition, and more. Last night, the First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a District Court ruling finding the new policy unlawful, reasoning that the federal government’s interpretation violated the relevant statutory text and congressional intent. "This ruling affirms that the Trump administration cannot unilaterally rewrite federal statutes to suit its political agenda," said Adriana Lafaille, managing attorney at the ACLU of Massachusetts. "This is especially important for matters of fundamental fairness, like the ability to seek release from detention. The federal government must follow the law, provide bond hearings to class members, and allow those who pose no danger or flight risk to be released while immigration courts decide their cases." With Thursday’s ruling, seven appellate courts and hundreds of District Court judges have now issued rulings holding that the Trump administration’s new policy of subjecting noncitizens living in the country to categorical detention without a bond hearing is unlawful. “I am gratified that the First Circuit upheld the rule of law, affirming what we have known since 1996: Immigrants, regardless of how they entered our country, are entitled to bond hearings. I am in awe of our client's courage to fight for what is right, securing not only his freedom but that of hundreds of other immigrants in New England,” said Annelise Araujo, founding principal and owner at Annelise Araujo Law. “We are pleased that the court is vindicating the rights of immigrants unlawfully detained in Maine and throughout New England,” said ACLU of Maine Legal Director Carol Garvan. “The government’s cruel mandatory detention policy stripped people of the chance to seek their freedom while indefinitely separating them from their loved ones, communities, and jobs. The policy also upended decades of standard civil immigration procedures, violating the clear language of federal law. The court's order today is clear: no administration is above the law. The government cannot arrest and detain people indefinitely without providing them with a hearing in front of a judge.” The petitioner and class in Guerrero Orellano v. Monizare represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, the ACLU, the ACLU of New Hampshire, the ACLU of Maine, Annelise Araujo Law, Foley Hoag, Anderson & Kreiger, and the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic. BACKGROUND The original complaint in this case was filed in September 2025 on behalf of Jose Arnulfo Guerrero Orellana and a class of similarly situated individuals. In October, the court granted a preliminary injunction and ordered a bond hearing for Mr. Guerrero Orellana, who was later released on bond. Later that month, the court certified a class of people arrested by federal immigration officials inside the United States and held in New England detention facilities. In December, the court grantedpartial summary judgment and rejected the government’s novel and erroneous statutory interpretation. As disclosed in subsequent court filings, the government’s chief immigration judge later instructed her colleagues to ignore declaratory judgments like the one entered in this case. Immigration judges have continued to systematically deny bond hearings to people arrested by ICE within the United States who are alleged to have entered without inspection, no matter how long the person has been in the country. This policy violates the plain language of the federal detention statutes and denies fundamental due process rights to potentially millions of people. Read the opinion here. Affiliates: Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire Federal Appeals Court Upholds Rights Of Detained Noncitizens To Bond Hearings. Explore Press Release. Press Release Aug 2026 Immigrants' Rights ACLU Comment on Federal Appeals Court Ruling in Alien Enemies Act Challenge NEW ORLEANS — The full Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans today dismissed W.M.M. v. Trump, a case challenging President Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act. The court ruled the case was moot because plaintiffs have since been removed under immigration laws, not the Alien Enemies Act. The court did not rule on the merits of the lawsuit. The ruling stems from a case filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Texas challenging the president’s use of this centuries-old wartime act in peacetime. The Supreme Court previously blocked the Trump administration from using the Alien Enemies Act to remove Venezuelans who were being detained in northern Texas and told the Fifth Circuit to expedite the appeal, while keeping a stay in place. In September 2025, a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit rejected the administration’s assertion that the wartime authority’s invocation was lawful because an “invasion or a predatory incursion has occurred.” The Trump administration then sought a hearing before the full appeals court, which heard the case in January 2026. The ACLU has other legal challenges to the Alien Enemies Act ongoing throughout the country. The following is reaction to today’s Fifth Circuit ruling: “The Supreme Court's injunction barring use of the Alien Enemies Act remains in place, which is essential because there are still people at risk of being wrongly removed under the act without due process. The Fifth Circuit decision also doesn’t change the fact that courts have overwhelmingly held that the use of this wartime authority during peacetime is unlawful,” said ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt, who argued the case. The ruling is here. Court Case: WMM v. Trump Affiliate: Texas Aclu Comment On Federal Appeals Court Ruling In Alien Enemies Act Challenge . Exp