Four detainees at the nation’s largest Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center have filed a federal lawsuit claiming “flagrant human rights abuses” and inhumane treatment.
In a 78-page lawsuit filed last week in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, the detainees say individuals at Camp East Montana on the U.S. Army’s Fort Bliss military base in El Paso are beaten by guards, denied medical care and sexually assaulted in violation of their constitutional rights.
“They are confined to windowless enclosures in tents and suffer egregious physical abuse by guards; abhorrent medical and mental health care,” read the lawsuit. “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.”
As USA TODAY reported in early March, the detention center was under quarantine and had been closed to visitors and attorneys due to a measles outbreak and two cases of tuberculosis.
As the lawsuit states, three people have died at Camp East Montana in the span of just six weeks between December 2025 and January.
Here is a look at two detainees’ experiences and a deep dive into the allegations, with the lawsuit being aided by the American Civil Liberties Union:
Camp East Montana, an ICE immigration detention center, is pictured from a distance.
Inside 2 detainees’ accounts of ‘dire’ conditions at Camp East Montana
“Day-to-day life at Camp East Montana is dire,” the lawsuit read.
The lawsuit has four plaintiffs who have signed on ‒ Gerald Akari Angye, Navdeep, Erik Ivan Rodriguez Flores and ZOR, with their own accounts reflected throughout the document. They are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Texas, the Texas Civil Rights Project and the law firm Farella Braun + Martel.
Those being sued are ICE, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Defense, and their respective leaders.
From experiencing coerced self-deportation efforts, delayed medical care and solitary confinement, here’s a look at two of the plaintiffs’ stories.
ZOR: Separated from family, denied faith, medical care
A plaintiff in the lawsuit is proceeding under the pseudonym ZOR and has been at Camp East Montana for eight months and has been separated from his wife and three children, the youngest of whom is only 6 years old.
According to the lawsuit, four days after ZOR arrived at the facility, ICE officers shackled him and drove him to the Mexican border.
“These officers told him to leave for Mexico, falsely claiming he had been granted asylum. ZOR was not shown any papers and was not able to contact his attorney,” the lawsuit read. “Officers have attempted to deport ZOR to Mexico or to his country of birth approximately five additional times during his detention, despite a court order prohibiting his removal to his country of birth.”
He also reportedly was beaten in December 2025 by another detainee, and the facility guards did not intervene, as three of ZOR’s teeth were broken, and his nose was badly injured and would bleed continuously. The lawsuit alleges that ZOR faced serious delays in treatment for these injuries.
ZOR also faced religious persecution.
“ZOR is a devout Christian, and a guard took his crucifix from him. When ZOR told the guard he was able to keep the crucifix under the handbook rules, the guard responded by throwing it in the trash,” the lawsuit stated.
Navdeep: 3 weeks in the same clothes, solitary for old injury
Plaintiff Navdeep was a mail handler before coming to Camp East Montana. The lawsuit states that he has no criminal history and has been sleeping on the dirty floor of a crowded room with approximately 40 other people for three days and had to wear the same clothes for three weeks.
In his five months at the camp, Navdeep has been shuffled between multiple units at the facility and experienced inhumane conditions in each one, including dirty toilet water flowing to his sleeping area, difficulty accessing cups to drink water with, and struggles to breathe due to the excessive desert dust in the tent,” the lawsuit read.
Navdeep also stated in the lawsuit that he often goes to bed and wakes up hungry due to the inadequate supply of He also suffers from preexisting injuries that prevent him from consistently being able to put his hands behind his back without severe pain.
“After he was unable to put his hands behind his back after being directed to do so, guards violently forced his hands behind his back to cuff him and locked him in solitary confinement for appearing to refuse their order,” read the lawsuit.
Camp East Montana is photographed Friday, March 6, 2026, in El Paso, Texas. Employees of Akima Global Services, LLC — the security subcontractor at the detention center — were told in internal messages that reports of a possible closure were not true, despite a Washington Post story earlier in the week reporting that federal officials were considering shutting it down, according to communications shared with the El Paso Times.
What the lawsuit alleges
“Day-to-day life at Camp East Montana is dire,” the lawsuit read. “Detained people are regularly subjected to severe beatings or sexual harassment by guards; squalid living conditions; spoiled and inadequate food; no meaningful programming or recreation.”
Here’s a look at the other allegations the lawsuit is claiming:
Frigid and crowded intake hold rooms : The intake area often holds 50 to 70 people at a time, despite a posted capacity of 30, and the conditions violate ICE’s own 2025 National Detention Standards.
Inappropriate use of force, sexual abuse: The lawsuit claims that officials routinely engage in abusive behavior and unreasonable use of force and guards sexually touch people without consent and face no accountability.
Coerced removals: Detainees report a pattern of guards attempting to coerce removals by using threats or force to get individuals to leave the U.S. ‒ sometimes to third countries where they have no connections, the lawsuit states.
Excessive solitary confinement: The facility, according to the lawsuit, imposes an “extreme and harsh form of solitary confinement at Camp East Montana, using it for behavior that does not warrant such a punishment and untethered to any law or policy guiding its appropriate use.”
Failed communications about operations: Detainees cannot obtain basic information about facility operations due to guards not knowing the procedures, failing to provide handbooks, or due to language barriers.
Other complaints include: limited access to outdoors, sunlight, or programming, limited access to families, unsanitary living areas, inadequate access to sanitation supplies, inadequate food, restrictions on access to attorneys, inadequate healthcare, dental and mental health services, and exposure to infectious diseases.
In an email to NPR, DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis rebutted the claims in the lawsuit, calling them “categorically false.”
“ICE is regularly audited and inspected by external agencies to ensure that all ICE facilities comply with performance-based national detention standards. All detainees are provided with proper meals, quality water, blankets, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with their family members and lawyers. ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens,” the email read.
Mateo Rosiles reports for the El Paso Times.
Mateo Rosiles is the Texas Connect reporter for USA TODAY and its regional papers in Texas. Got a news tip for him? Email him at mrosiles@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Four detainees sue ICE over conditions at Camp East Montana in Texas