Akari Angye et al v. ICE

On May 29, 2026, the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, the ACLU, Texas Civil Rights Project, and the law firm Farella Braun + Martel LLP sued Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) 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 detained at Camp East Montana. This is the first lawsuit against the nation’s largest immigration detention center, which has faced repeated reports of abusive and deadly conditions since it opened in August 2025.

On October 16, 2026, the organizations filed a motion for a preliminary injunction asking the court to order ICE to provide adequate healthcare and improve conditions at the camp immediately, while the case continues. The motion is supported by more than 40 declarations from people currently or formerly detained at Camp East Montana, family members of people who died there, and correctional and medical experts. Expert reports describe a deficient and dangerous healthcare system. A former state prison director who evaluated the camp found the conditions harsher than those in the most secure prisons he has overseen.

The case was filed during one of ICE’s deadliest years on record, and after three people died at Camp East Montana in the span of weeks between December 2025 and January 2026.

The organizations have documented dozens of accounts of horrific rights violations, including:

• Severe medical neglect and disease outbreaks, including a months-long measles outbreak that infected at least 14 people.

• Physical beatings and other violent uses of force by guards against detained people, and coercive threats of deportation.
• Excessive use of solitary confinement to punish people for requesting basic needs like medical care or hygiene.
• Inadequate and rancid food that has caused detained people to lose extreme amounts of weight and develop other serious medical conditions.
• Exposure to dirt and dust 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.

Prior to the filing of the lawsuit, the ACLU of Texas and partners submitted a letter to the federal government in December 2025 documenting abusive and sexual contact and other inhumane conditions at Camp East Montana.

Click here for the latest updates and filings in this case.