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The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and allied organizations filed a federal class-action lawsuit on Friday against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) regarding the conditions at Camp East Montana, the largest migrant detention center in the United States, located at the Fort Bliss military base in El Paso, Texas, following the deaths of three individuals in six weeks, including a 55-year-old Cuban.
The case that triggered the lawsuit involves Geraldo Lunas Campos, who died on January 3 while in ICE custody at that facility.
The El Paso County Medical Examiner classified the death as homicide by asphyxia due to compression of the neck and torso.
Witnesses testified that the guards assaulted Lunas Campos after he refused to enter his solitary confinement cell unless he received medication.
His last words, according to the witnesses cited in the lawsuit, were: "You're choking me."
ICE initially described the incident as "medical complications" and later as a suicide attempt, a version contradicted by the autopsy.
The FBI has opened an investigation into the death of Lunas Campos in April.
In addition to the Cuban, Francisco Gaspar-Andres and Víctor Manuel Díaz also passed away in the same facility between December 2025 and January of this year.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas under the case Angye et al. v. ICE (No. 3:26-cv-1515), seeks to certify a class representing approximately 800 individuals currently detained at the center, as well as anyone who may be detained there in the future.
"The conditions at Camp East Montana have proven to be lethal," states the text of the lawsuit.
The center, with a capacity of 5,000 people, was opened by ICE in August 2025 and is operated by private contractors in a facility with historical significance: Fort Bliss was used during World War II to intern people of Japanese descent.
The plaintiffs describe windowless tents crowded with bunk beds, a shortage of food or spoiled food, lack of access to basic hygiene products, delays in the delivery of medications, and beatings and harassment by guards.
"The individuals detained there experience widespread and severe damage that encompasses nearly every aspect of their confinement," adds the lawsuit.
In March, the center closed its doors to visitors after detecting at least 14 cases of measles among the detainees, with 112 people in quarantine.
The inspections conducted by ICE in September 2025 and February of this year found violations of detention standards, and reports indicate nearly 50 violations in less than a year of operation.
The plaintiffs argue that the conditions are punitive and violate the Fifth Amendment, as the center is a civil detention facility and not a penal one.
ICE did not respond to the request for comments regarding the lawsuit.
The class action lawsuit is the culmination of months of pressure from civil rights organizations: the ACLU had sent letters to ICE in December 2025 and in May alerting about the conditions before resorting to the courts, in a context where the use of force in ICE detention centers increased by 37% during 2025.
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