EL PASO: 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 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.

A congressionally mandated inspection of the camp’s temporary structures in February found 49 violations of detention standards, including 11 related to “use of force and restraints” and five related to “medical care.” According to the ACLU lawsuit, detainees are confined in windowless enclosures where they suffer physical abuse by guards, abhorrent medical and mental healthcare, indiscriminate use of solitary confinement and exposure to diseases.

Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2026