Civil rights groups have filed a lawsuit over alleged human rights abuses at the United States’ largest immigration detention center in El Paso, Texas, where three people have died in the nine months since it opened.
The American Civil Liberties Union, and other groups, brought the complaint, opens new tab on behalf of four people currently held at Camp East Montana, a sprawling tent encampment set up under President Donald Trump’s mass-deportation strategy.
The action, filed in United States District Court Western District of Texas, names camp operator US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and parent agency the US Department of Homeland Security among defendants. It is the first lawsuit against the desert facility on the Fort Bliss military base and aims to improve conditions for its more than 2,700 detainees, the ACLU said in a statement.
DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The agency has previously said the $1.2 billion camp meets federal standards for immigrant detention.
“We’re suing to ensure that no other human being has to endure the inhumane treatment,” said Kyle Virgien, an attorney for the National Prison Project of the ACLU, which filed the lawsuit together with Human Rights Watch and the Texas Civil Rights Project.
