HOUSTON — The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas today filed a claim against the federal government on behalf of lawful permanent resident Elton Purvis who experienced medical neglect and mistreatment at the hands of federal law enforcement in Texas while in immigration detention. The filing is part of a coordinated nationwide effort by the ACLU and its affiliates involving 53 claims across 17 states and Washington D.C.
Since the beginning of President Trump’s second term, federal law enforcement agents have terrorized communities and people in their custody with a blatant disregard for the law. The consequences have been deadly. Conditions in ICE facilities are so inhumane that the rate of deaths in ICE custody has more than doubled since Trump’s term began, reaching its highest level in over a decade.
In early July, reporting revealed that, after the White House pushed to increase arrest rates, ICE officials detained more than 10,000 people in five days. Only days later, ICE agents in unmarked vehicles shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas while he was on his way to work. The following week, another federal agent shot and killed Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine.
FOUND UNRESPONSIVE SEVERAL TIMES IN DETENTION
In Texas, the ACLU of Texas claim represents a call for accountability against the injustices that individuals face in immigration detention every day. Mr. Purvis is bringing legal action against the federal government for the harm he experienced during his seven-month detention last year, including at a facility in Pearsall, Texas.
As a devout Rastafarian priest and Type 1 diabetic, Mr. Purvis requires regular medical monitoring, specialized treatment, and an appropriate diet that conforms to his religious, medical, and allergenic needs. Instead, ICE locked him up and consistently denied him the medical care and food he needed to survive. As a result of the neglect he experienced in detention, Mr. Purvis was found unresponsive and hospitalized on numerous occasions. Mr. Purvis seeks monetary damages from the U.S. government under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) for claims related to negligence, medical negligence, abuse of process, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
“The injustice that Mr. Purvis was forced to endure while in detention is tragically representative of the experience of thousands of detainees in Texas immigration detention centers,” said Caro Rivera Nelson (she/her), attorney at the ACLU of Texas. “Individuals are left in inhumane conditions for months on end without access to adequate medical care, edible food, potable water, or a way out. While in detention, Mr. Purvis filed over 100 grievances to ICE and followed every channel available to ask for medical help – nothing worked.”
Mr. Purvis has lawful immigration status and was returning home for two of his sons’ graduations when he was apprehended by ICE. He is the father to nine U.S. citizen children and has been a community fixture for more than 30 years. Throughout his detention, he was consistently denied access to necessary medical care, insulin, edible food, and clean drinking water, and hospitalized at least three times.
Across the country, ACLU affiliates are fighting back against the Trump administration’s illegal conduct by filing claims under the FTCA, one of the few legal tools available to seek financial compensation for wrongdoing by federal government employees. Through this coordinated effort, ACLU affiliates are representing dozens of people and families who are seeking justice for the harm they experienced at the hands of federal immigration agents.
“Being in detention broke my courage. It felt like they were trying to kill me,” said Elton Purvis (he/him), claimant. “I was so desperate to receive medical help. So many times, I knew I was on the verge of going into diabetic shock. I often had to beg for help as my sugar dropped and I started feeling shortness of breath, dizziness and seeing stars. I would pray that the guards would send help before I became unresponsive.”
Mr. Purvis described repeated difficulties getting access to medicine or talking to a lawyer. He called his detention center experience “an endless loop that only results in deportation.”
AGENTS OF CHAOS AND CRUELTY
Each of the more than 50 claims that have been filed tells an individual story of someone who was brutalized by immigration enforcement. Together, they reveal a widespread pattern of civil rights violations and abuses carried out by officials nationwide, affecting people who are immigrants, U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, families, workers, and people exercising their constitutional rights.
Earlier this month, the ACLU released a report analyzing immigration enforcement actions in the first year of President Trump’s second term. The report, “Agents of Chaos and Cruelty,” examines more than 1,200 immigration enforcement incidents across eight states and found that more than 400 of those incidents involved misconduct by immigration agents, including excessive force, racial profiling, and intimidation and abuse.
The ACLU and its affiliates will continue to work to defend the rights of everyone, including people harmed by Trump’s immigration forces, and hold the administration accountable for its unlawful and inhumane actions.
Access the Federal Tort Claims Act filing here: https://www.aclutx.org/app/uploads/2026/07/EP_SF95-Filing_Final.pdf
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