ICE detainees are asking a federal judge to intervene at the agency's largest detention camp, citing sworn accounts alleging that guards beat people who resisted removal to Mexico and that masked personnel allegedly beat others and ordered them to cross the southern border.
The motion for a preliminary injunction, filed Thursday in federal court in El Paso, Texas, concerns Camp East Montana, a sprawling immigration detention facility at Fort Bliss. The request is backed by declarations from 43 people, including current or former detainees and relatives or friends of those who died, 29 medical records, four government oversight reports and two expert declarations. Plaintiffs argue the conditions amount to unconstitutional punishment under the Fifth Amendment.
One Cuban detainee claimed that guards slammed his head against a wall repeatedly and crushed his testicles after he refused removal to Mexico. Another detainee alleged they were taken toward the southern border, told to “jump over into Mexico," and that masked personnel beat some who refused.
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The allegations have not been established by a court. The preliminary-injunction motion presents the plaintiffs' evidence and arguments, and the judge has not ruled that the accusations are true.
An ICE Office of Detention Oversight inspection found a 37.5 percent failure rate in February, including deficiencies involving use of force and restraints, security, sexual abuse and assault prevention, and tuberculosis protocols. Despite that, the inspection gave the facility an "Acceptable/Adequate" rating, according to the filing.
An unannounced follow-up inspection in May found that overall deficiencies had increased from 49 to 52, while "Priority Component Deficiencies" rose from three to 12, according to the motion. Eight were repeat deficiencies. The report listed zero corrective actions, plaintiffs said.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has maintained that allegations concerning the conditions at Camp East Montana are "categorically false," a "smear campaign" and "fearmongering clickbait."
Newsweek has contacted DHS and ICE for comment via email.
Among the supporting evidence filed Thursday is a collection of declarations from detainees, many identified by pseudonyms.
"Isaac," a 43-year-old Cuban man, alleged guards confronted him in September 2025 after he refused removal to Mexico, returning with about 30 others.
"Outside in the hallway, the guards started beating on me," Isaac said in his sworn declaration.
He said guards slammed his head against a wall about 10 times, twisted his ankles and crushed his testicles, leaving him with severe pain that lasted about a month.
When they reached what Isaac understood to be the Mexican side of the border, he said approximately 15 to 20 masked people were there. A guard allegedly told the detainees that because their own countries would not accept them, Mexico was a good option, and that those who refused could instead be sent to "a jail cell in El Salvador or to Africa."
Isaac said he refused and was allowed back on the bus. He said only a Nicaraguan man and another Cuban man returned on the bus with him, while "the rest went to Mexico."
The exhibit also contains an anatomical diagram on which Isaac marked areas where he said guards injured him.
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A second Cuban detainee, "Abel," similarly alleged guards beat him after he refused to be cuffed and taken to Mexico. He said he was subsequently transported with about 13 others to the border near Santa Teresa, where masked people were present, and detainees were directed toward a bus bound for Mexico. Abel said only four people returned with him.
Told to ‘Jump’ Into Mexico
Another declaration, from a Cuban detainee identified as "Eduardo," goes further.
Eduardo alleged that on two occasions people working at the facility attempted to remove him to Mexico, despite his being Cuban and never having been there.
He said that during one trip around October 23, 2025, he was transported with 10 Cubans and two Nicaraguans to Santa Teresa. The people who transported the group worked at the detention center, Eduardo said, while masked people were present near the border wall along with one unmasked ICE representative.
"When the guards took us out of the truck, they replaced the metal cuffs with plastic ones and then told us to jump over into Mexico," Eduardo said in the declaration.
He alleged that detained people were warned they could face federal charges and remain in detention if they refused.
"The masked people sometimes beat on people to get them to jump the wall even if they don't want to," Eduardo alleged. "I have seen other people get beaten up and forced to jump."
Eduardo said he refused to cross, although he claimed that "a lot of people" did. The filing does not identify the masked personnel Eduardo described, and his allegation does not by itself establish their agency or employer.
The filings describe alleged beatings extending beyond the Mexico removals. "Eduardo" said guards beat him multiple times after he sought medication, including an October 2025 incident in which he alleged six or seven guards stomped on him while he was cuffed until he lost consciousness. He said another beating after his release from solitary left him bruised and bloody and required a second ambulance trip to a hospital.
"Samuel," a 19-year-old Venezuelan, alleged officers body-slammed and beat him after he turned off a light, breaking a tooth, crushing his testicles, and injuring his ear. He said he lost consciousness and was taken by ambulance to a hospital, and later reported continuing hearing loss and receiving a $1,140 medical bill related to the emergency visit.
The preliminary-injunction motion alleges excessive force was systemic and cites ICE oversight findings that staff lacked training in de-escalation and use-of-force techniques and failed to document uses of force, preserve video and audio evidence, and conduct appropriate after-action reviews.
The motion also cites a detainee death that the El Paso Medical Examiner ruled a homicide caused by"asphyxia due to neck and torso compression," and says government oversight material found evidence connected to the death "was missing or destroyed."
Separately, plaintiffs allege guards fractured named plaintiff Gerald Akari Angye's wrist and spine while he was shackled and not resisting.
"Urgent protection is desperately needed at Camp East Montana," Gerald Akari Angye said in a statement shared with Newsweek, alleging that detainees continue to lack adequate food, water, medicine and recreation. Angye said he would "never be the same" after the violence he alleges he experienced at the hands of guards.
"The inhumane conditions at Camp East Montana seem to be getting worse. No one of good conscience can support what is happening there. I plead with the court to give relief to people held in the horrible Camp East Montana."
Plaintiffs also allege systemic medical failures involving access to medication and treatment for conditions including tuberculosis, cancer, diabetes, heart disease and HIV. Their medical expert described fundamental health-care systems as "deeply flawed," while the filing alleges one preventable death from bleeding and sepsis. It also says more than a dozen people contracted measles in February and March 2026 and that a May ICE review found 16 percent of records examined lacked appropriate tuberculosis screening before placement in the general population.
Detainees describe spending as much as 23 or 24 hours a day in windowless tent enclosures holding up to 72 people, amid dust, overflowing toilets, and inadequate hygiene supplies, with some reporting going days or weeks without outdoor recreation.
A Newsweek investigation previously found that women detained at Camp East Montana described living in windowless tent enclosures amid overflowing toilets, mold and shortages of basic hygiene supplies, with some reporting limited medical care and days without access to the outdoors. Several also alleged verbal harassment by guards and obstacles to confidential communication with attorneys.
Rita Lomio, senior counsel at the ACLU’s National Prison Project, said in a statement, "While litigation continues, a preliminary injunction is needed to end the most egregious abuses before more people needlessly suffer and die."
Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Matthew Cannon, James Debens, Gray R. Thomas