A coalition of legal and civil rights organizations has filed a federal lawsuit against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), challenging the conditions at Camp East Montana, the largest immigration detention facility in the United States, located in El Paso, Texas. The lawsuit was announced late Friday and signals growing concerns over the treatment of detainees within this facility.
Kyle Virgien, a senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) National Prison Project, described Camp East Montana as “nothing short of a civil rights catastrophe.” Virgien emphasized the urgency of the lawsuit, stating, “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 legal action comes at a time when scrutiny of ICE facilities has intensified due to numerous reported violations.
The lawsuit was filed by the ACLU of Texas, the ACLU, the Texas Civil Rights Project, and the law firm Farella Braun + Martel. It follows alarming reports from the facility, which has been operational for less than a year, including at least three detainee deaths, a measles outbreak, and nearly 50 violations of detention standards as identified by ICE’s own inspectors. These findings have prompted calls for the camp’s closure from immigrant advocacy groups and Democratic lawmakers.
In a December letter addressed to ICE, civil rights groups alleged that detained immigrants faced issues such as medical neglect, physical and sexual abuse by officers, inadequate food supplies, and restricted access to legal representation. Although ICE replaced the facility’s primary operator in March 2025, citing a commitment to improve services and medical care, subsequent communications indicated that conditions continued to deteriorate, with additional complaints emerging, including exposure to hazardous dust.
The lawsuit argues that the conditions at Camp East Montana violate detainees’ constitutional rights, particularly their due process rights under the Fifth Amendment. It has been filed on behalf of four detainees, with a request to proceed as a class action to encompass all individuals currently detained at the facility.
One of the plaintiffs, Gerald Akari Angye, a 35-year-old immigrant from Cameroon, described the conditions at Camp East Montana as “inhumane and cruel.” Angye, who fled his home country after being kidnapped and tortured amid a separatist conflict, sought asylum in the United States after crossing into New Mexico in December 2024. However, his application was denied by an immigration judge, and he has since appealed the decision.
In a statement released by the civil rights groups, Angye shared his harrowing experiences at the camp, stating, “I was beaten at Camp East Montana and never thought I would face such severely violent treatments in the United States.” He called for humane treatment for all detainees, asserting, “No one deserves such cruel treatment. We are all humans and deserve to be treated like it.”
Opened in August 2025 on the Fort Bliss U.S. Army base, Camp East Montana was initially designed to accommodate up to 5,000 detainees. As of April 2, 2026, the facility reported a daily average of over 2,500 detainees, making it the largest immigration detention facility in the country for the fiscal year 2026, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.
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