ICE Sued Over Conditions at West Texas Facility

By Alex Nguyen / The Texas Tribune

EL PASO, TX — A group of legal and civil rights organizations late Friday sued U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement over conditions at Camp East Montana in El Paso, the country’s largest immigration detention facility.

“Camp East Montana is nothing short of a civil rights catastrophe,” Kyle Virgien, senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Prison Project, said in a statement. “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.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security called claims of inhumane conditions at the facility “categorically false.”

DHS broadly denied or downplayed these allegations, stating that ICE has provided the best healthcare many immigrants “have received in their entire lives” and that the federal agency has “higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens.” 

The department spokesperson also said “no detainees are being beaten or abused” and all are given three meals a day that are evaluated by dietitians.

The petition, filed on behalf of four detainees, is also seeking approval to proceed as a class action to cover all those who are currently or will be detained in Camp East Montana.

U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar said in a statement to the Tribune that she is grateful for the legal fight. A leading critic of Camp East Montana, the El Paso Democrat called the facility “a purgatory for human beings held there.” She also vowed to continue her oversight visits and demand for the tent camp’s permanent closure.

Camp East Montana, first opened in August 2025, is located on Fort Bliss U.S. Army base. 

Expected to ultimately reach a 5,000-bed capacity, the camp had a daily average of more than 2,500 detainees as of April 2, according to the most recent public data from ICE. The facility has also held the largest number of detained immigrants thus far in fiscal year 2026, the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University found.