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Detainees at Camp East Montana, ICE’s tent camp on Fort Bliss, have asked a federal judge to force changes to medical care and living conditions while their lawsuit proceeds. Much of their case rests on the government’s own audits and inspections.
People held at Camp East Montana, the immigration detention camp on the Fort Bliss Army post in El Paso, Texas, asked a federal judge on Oct. 15 to order immediate improvements in medical care and conditions there. The motion for a preliminary injunction, filed in Akari Angye v. ICE in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, asks the court to require ICE to draw up remedial plans and to appoint independent experts to evaluate and support carrying them out. More than 40 declarations from detainees, relatives of people who died there and outside experts back it.
The request matters beyond El Paso because the camp is a leading example of how fast ICE has added capacity. It opened in August 2025 with room for 5,000 people, and the Government Accountability Office found that ICE’s average daily detained population nationwide rose 71 percent between Jan. 20, 2025, and April 1, 2026. The suit tests whether a facility built that fast meets the constitutional floor owed to people held on civil charges.
The ACLU and partner groups filed the case in May on behalf of everyone held at the camp. The new motion describes people confined to tents 23 to 24 hours a day, enclosures holding up to 72 people, delayed medical care and beatings by guards. DHS has called claims of “inhumane” conditions at the camp “categorically false,” The Guardian reported.
A record built partly by federal auditors
- GAO audit, June 2026: The camp opened without key standards in place, including perimeter security cameras, outdoor recreation space and attorney and family visitation space, and ICE did not inspect it before housing detainees, as its own policy requires. The $1.3 billion contract went to a company with no prior detention experience; ICE terminated it in April 2026. About 1,600 people were held there at the end of February.
- ICE’s own inspections, 2026: According to the motion, ICE’s Office of Detention Oversight found 49 deficiencies in a pre-announced February inspection. An unannounced follow-up in May found 52, with priority deficiencies rising from 3 to 12 and eight repeat deficiencies.
- Disease: The motion says more than a dozen people caught measles in February and March 2026 and that a person with tuberculosis was housed in general population in November 2025.
- Deaths: The plaintiffs say three people have died at the camp. The El Paso medical examiner ruled the Jan. 3 death of Geraldo Lunas Campos, a 55-year-old Cuban man, a homicide from “asphyxia due to neck and torso compression,” according to the autopsy report obtained by KFOX14/CBS4. DHS has said he was trying to take his own life, that staff intervened and he resisted, and that the investigation is ongoing.
After the GAO report, DHS told ABC News that ICE had replaced the contractor and that the new operator would bring more on-site medical care.
Why the May inspection may weigh most
People in immigration detention are civil detainees, not prisoners serving sentences. Under the Supreme Court’s 1979 decision in Bell v. Wolfish, the Due Process Clause bars conditions that amount to punishment, meaning conditions not reasonably related to a legitimate, nonpunitive purpose. The plaintiffs use ICE’s 2025 National Detention Standards as the yardstick. Repeated failures found by the agency’s own inspectors make the conditions harder to defend.
The government’s likely answer is that the problems belonged to a contractor that is gone. The timing complicates that argument. The unannounced May inspection, which found more deficiencies rather than fewer, came after ICE ended the original contract in April, according to GAO’s account. If the court credits that report, the change of operator looks less like a cure.
A preliminary injunction is still a high bar. The plaintiffs must show likely success and irreparable harm, and courts traditionally give the executive room to run detention. An order covering everyone at the camp also depends on class certification, which the plaintiffs sought in May; the public filings reviewed do not show a ruling. Any decision can be appealed to the Fifth Circuit.
The case also feeds a policy dispute that will outlast it. GAO recommended that ICE build controls to ensure new facilities are inspected and meet standards before anyone is housed in them. DHS replied that existing policy already requires that, and GAO disagreed because ICE did not follow the policy at Fort Bliss. As ICE keeps opening sites quickly, a court record of what follows when that step is skipped is likely to be cited well beyond El Paso.
This article is for general information and is not legal advice.
Sources
- Plaintiffs’ Motion for Preliminary Injunction, Akari Angye v. ICE, No. 3:26-cv-1515 (W.D. Tex.), ECF No. 52, filed Oct. 15, 2026
- Plaintiffs’ counsel announcement of the motion, Oct. 16, 2026
- U.S. Government Accountability Office, “Immigration Detention: Waste and Performance Issues at Camp East Montana Provide Valuable Lessons for Future Facilities,” GAO-26-108886, June 9, 2026
- The Guardian, “‘Unsafe’ conditions at Texas ICE facility put immigrants at risk of injury or death, lawsuit says,” Oct. 16, 2026 (as republished by AOL)
- KFOX14/CBS4, “Medical examiner rules migrant’s death at Camp East Montana a homicide,” Jan. 21, 2026
- ABC News, “Largest ICE detention facility wasted millions and put detainees at risk, report finds,” June 10, 2026
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