Detainees Sue US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Over Alleged Human Rights Abuses at Fort Bliss Facility in Texas

Four detainees at the largest Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in the United States filed a federal lawsuit on Saturday alleging human rights abuses, "horrific" conditions, and "severe medical neglect" at the facility. The complaint, lodged in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, details "inhumane" treatment inside Camp East Montana on the U.S. Army's Fort Bliss military base in El Paso, Texas. The suit describes a litany of abuse allegations, including a lack of medical care and physical violence at the hands of guards, and accuses the government of human rights and constitutional violations.

Allegations of Abuse and Neglect

"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; inadequate access to basic hygiene products such as soap, razors or nail clippers, outbreaks of disease; and limited or no access to sunlight," according to the complaint. The plaintiffs filed the suit on behalf of themselves, all detainees of the facility, and future people held there, seeking class-action status for the legal challenge. It is the first lawsuit against the facility, though immigration advocates and former detainees have been calling for the massive facility to be shut down for months.

Named Plaintiff's Account

According to the complaint, guards beat Gerald Akari Angye, one of the named plaintiffs, so severely that he had to be hospitalized and placed in a wheelchair. Angye, who has been at Camp East Montana for just over a month, claims he was then locked in solitary confinement for 15 days. "No human being should ever have to go through this," Angye said in a statement released by the American Civil Liberties Union, one of the organizations representing the detainees. "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."

Additional Plaintiff Complaints

Another detainee identified in the complaint only as Navdeep, a former mail handler with no criminal history, says he experienced dirty toilet water flowing into his sleeping area, difficulty accessing cups for drinking water, and breathing problems because of excessive dust from the desert. Navdeep wore the same clothes, including underwear, for three weeks, according to the lawsuit. "We could die here, and it feels like no one here would care," Navdeep said in the ACLU statement. People being held at Camp East Montana do not receive timely medications to manage a range of serious medical issues such as HIV, cancer, and diabetes, according to the lawsuit.

Facility Conditions and Named Defendants

In February, the detention center was closed temporarily to visitors because of a measles outbreak, according to Marfa Public Radio. The complaint also describes housing units without windows, crammed spaces, a constant odor of urine and feces, a lack of clean water, and reports that detainees receive only two pieces of bread, a piece of ham or bologna, a slice of cheese, and a cookie for all three meals. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin are named as defendants in the lawsuit. In an email to NPR, a DHS spokesperson who would not give their name rebutted the claims in the lawsuit, saying they are "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 wat

Context: Similar allegations of poor conditions and medical neglect have been raised in lawsuits against other U.S. immigration detention facilities, including the Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia, where detainees reported forced hysterectomies and unsanitary conditions, and the Otero County Processing Center in New Mexico, which faced litigation over inadequate mental health care and prolonged solitary confinement.