Human Impact Project

The ACLU, civil rights organizations, and individual detainees filed a federal lawsuit against ICE and DHS challenging conditions at Camp East Montana, the largest immigration detention center in the U.S., located at Fort Bliss military base in El Paso, Texas. The complaint alleges physical abuse by guards, inadequate medical care, solitary confinement, disease exposure including a measles outbreak, and nearly 50 violations of detention standards. At least three detainees have died since the facility opened nine months prior, including a Cuban immigrant ruled to have died from asphyxia due to neck and torso compression. Named plaintiffs Navdeep, a former mail handler, and ZOR, a father detained over eight months, detailed specific conditions including contaminated water, inadequate drinking water access, breathing problems from desert dust, lack of medical care, and family separation.

ZOR (pseudonym used for privacy) has been detained at Camp East Montana for over eight months. He is a parent separated from his young children. He is a named plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit challenging detention conditions including inhumane treatment, medical neglect, disease outbreaks, and family separation. He states the facility operates in a lawless manner despite guards being charged with upholding the law.

Navdeep, a detainee with preexisting injuries that prevent him from putting his hands behind his back, was locked in solitary confinement for appearing to refuse guard orders to do so. He described feeling like a political pawn taken from his job and family and forced into unsafe tent conditions. He is one of four named plaintiffs in the ACLU lawsuit against ICE over Camp East Montana conditions.

Navdeep was taken from his job and detained at Camp East Montana tent camp on the Fort Bliss military base. He is a named plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit seeking accountability for inhumane conditions including medical neglect, disease outbreaks, violent treatment by guards, inadequate food, and dangerous living conditions. He expresses concern about the lack of oversight and potential cover-ups of deaths and abuses.

Gerald Akari Angye, a 35-year-old former high school teacher from Cameroon who fled after experiencing kidnapping and torture, crossed into the U.S. in December 2024 and sought asylum. After his asylum claim was denied, he was detained at Camp East Montana ICE detention center at Fort Bliss military base in El Paso for over a month. While detained, Angye was severely beaten by guards after requesting to speak with an attorney before signing documents, suffering injuries to his hands and wrists that required a brace and hospitalization. He was subsequently placed in solitary confinement for 15 days. The ACLU of Texas and partner civil rights organizations filed a federal class-action lawsuit against ICE on behalf of Angye and three other named plaintiffs, challenging severe conditions at the facility including violent use of force, medical neglect, disease outbreaks, excessive solitary confinement, and inhumane living conditions.

Erik Ivan Rodriguez was detained at Camp East Montana, a tent detention facility at Fort Bliss military base in El Paso, Texas. While detained, he experienced physical violence by officers who attempted to coerce him to sign deportation papers. Rodriguez and three other detainees filed a class-action lawsuit through the ACLU of Texas and partner civil rights organizations in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, challenging inhumane detention conditions including medical neglect, disease outbreaks, inadequate food, unsanitary living conditions, excessive solitary confinement, and violent use of force.

Yessenia Ruano, a teacher's aide at a bilingual Milwaukee public school and mother of twin daughters who are U.S. citizens, fled El Salvador in 2011 to escape gang violence and later became a victim of human trafficking in the U.S. She had attended 19 in-person ICE check-ins over 14 years and had a pending T-visa application for trafficking survivors when, at her final check-in in May 2025, officials told her she had to leave within days. Facing arrest and separation from her daughters, she self-deported to El Salvador in June 2025, taking her daughters with her while her husband, Miguel, stayed behind temporarily before joining them. Her Milwaukee community rallied around her, gathering 2,800 petition signatures within 24 hours and raising nearly $16,000 for her family. In May 2026, a federal judge ordered that Ruano and two other plaintiffs be allowed to return to the U.S., finding immigration officials had violated federal law and due process by automatically deporting crime victims without considering their pending applications. Her attorney said the government must now review her T-visa petition once she returns.

The ACLU of Wyoming is investigating 287(g) agreements across the state following its lawsuit against Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak, who signed three ICE partnership agreements without county commission approval or public input. The organization has sent records requests to the Wyoming Highway Patrol and seven other counties, with plans to pursue additional lawsuits if investigations reveal similar violations of state law.

The Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition filed a lawsuit against the Tennessee Highway Patrol over its partnership with ICE, alleging the collaboration violates multiple constitutional amendments and constitutes racial profiling. The lawsuit references a May 2025 operation in South Nashville where THP conducted traffic stops for minor infractions and ICE agents detained 20 people the first night, with nearly 200 arrested during the entire weekend. The complaint alleges warrantless detention, subterfuge use of traffic stop powers, and misuse of taxpayer dollars, and also cites ongoing THP-ICE operations in Memphis and a DUI checkpoint in Robertson County.

The United States District Court for the Western District of Texas granted provisional class certification and a preliminary injunction blocking four key provisions of Texas Senate Bill 4, a 2023 law the court found could allow states to pass their own immigration laws and undermine federal uniformity. The blocked provisions include a reentry crime applicable to anyone reentering Texas even with federal permission, magistrate power to issue deportation orders, criminalization of failing to comply with removal orders, and requirements that magistrates continue prosecutions despite pending federal immigration cases. The class-action lawsuit, filed by the ACLU of Texas and Texas Civil Rights Project on May 4, represents thousands of people across the state, including a lawful permanent resident and a person provisionally approved for a U Visa after assisting law enforcement.

Wendy Hernandez Reyes, a 29-year-old undocumented immigrant and domestic violence survivor with no criminal record, was detained by Baldwin County sheriff's deputies in Alabama on January 8, 2026, during a traffic stop. After ICE was contacted, Hernandez repeatedly requested her release to care for her 2-year-old U.S. citizen son, Orlin, but was denied. She was deported to Honduras on January 26, 2026, without her son and was forced to leave him in the care of her brother-in-law, Samuel Maldonado Erazo. On March 4, 2026, Orlin died from multiple blunt force traumas inflicted by Maldonado, who was charged with first-degree murder. A federal court reopened a case against the Department of Homeland Security alleging ICE officials failed to follow safety protocols during separation and lacked a reunification plan, while ICE blamed Hernandez for leaving her son with the relative.

Senior Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the Trump administration violated a December court order restricting warrantless immigration arrests in Washington, D.C. The judge found that an ICE memo providing guidance to agents on when to arrest without a warrant did not properly comply with her earlier order, using a flawed definition of "escape risk" and ignoring requirements to consider community ties. The ruling came after the ACLU of DC sued the administration alleging federal agents had been indiscriminately arresting Washington residents perceived to be Latino without warrants.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit rejected the Trump administration's policy of detaining noncitizens arrested inside the U.S. without bond hearings, ruling it would constitute "the broadest mass-detention-without-bond mandate in our nation's history." The case involved Ricardo Aparecido Barbosa da Cunha, a Brazilian man who had lived in the U.S. for two decades and was ultimately granted release after a district court ordered a bond hearing.

Jose Arnulfo Guerrero Orellana, an unauthorized immigrant from El Salvador who entered the U.S. unlawfully in 2013, was arrested at a traffic stop in Massachusetts. He is challenging the Trump administration's policy of mandatory detention for all unauthorized immigrants without bond hearings through a class action lawsuit, Guerrero Orellana v. Moniz et al. The case argues the policy contradicts the Immigration and Nationality Act and long-standing government practice. The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments on the case, with federal appellate courts currently split on the issue and Supreme Court review increasingly likely.

A native of Nicaragua was detained by ICE in May 2026 and is currently held at Richwood Correctional in Monroe, Louisiana. He was granted withholding of removal as to Nicaragua under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). He filed a habeas corpus petition and emergency motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to prevent his deportation or transfer, arguing that deportation to Mexico would violate his due process rights and expose him to refoulement to Nicaragua despite his CAT withholding order. He is a member of the D.V.D. class, consisting of individuals subject to final removal orders whom ICE plans to deport to third countries. The district court denied his motion for temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, citing the Supreme Court's prior stay denial in the D.V.D. class litigation and the principle of avoiding duplicative litigation.

On April 28, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit unanimously ruled that the Trump administration's mandatory detention policy for immigrants without inspection—implemented in July 2025—violated federal immigration law and constitutional due process by denying bond hearings. The case centered on Ricardo Barbosa da Cunha, a Brazilian national who had lived in the U.S. for over 20 years with work authorization, a business, and a pending legal status application when detained under the policy in September 2025. The court rejected the government's statutory interpretation of 1996 immigration law, finding it improperly expanded detention to all non-citizens regardless of U.S. residence length, criminal history, or community ties. The decision created a circuit split, as two other appellate courts had previously upheld the policy, setting up likely Supreme Court review.

A man held in an ICE detention center had his finger bitten off by another detainee and was subsequently placed in solitary confinement without antibiotics or proper medical treatment for a year. When he sought help as the infection became severely infected and ruptured, he was given only toilet paper instead of appropriate medical care. The case is part of a federal class-action lawsuit addressing inhumane and unconstitutional conditions in ICE detention facilities.

Isaac Villegas Molina, a Pasadena resident and lead plaintiff in federal litigation challenging ICE enforcement operations, was arrested by federal agents on June 18, 2025, at a bus stop along with two other day laborers. He was released on bond in July 2025. On April 17, 2026, Villegas was arrested again by ICE during an appointment with the Alternatives to Detention-Intensive Supervision Appearance Program. His lawyer filed a habeas petition alleging the arrest was unlawful, without a warrant, and retaliatory given his pending removal case hearing. Following the arrest, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order. Villegas was released from Adelanto Detention Center after community outcry and advocacy from supporters including local elected leaders and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON).

U.S. District Judge Michelle Williams ordered ICE to immediately release Isaac Antonio Villegas Molina, a Pasadena resident detained during an ICE check-in while he is a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit challenging immigration raids in Los Angeles. The judge prohibited the government from redetaining him without notice and a hearing before a neutral judge, noting the government did not object to his initial release request. Villegas, originally from Panama, was arrested by ICE agents in June while waiting at a bus stop and has been under ICE surveillance since being released on bond. He is scheduled to appear before an immigration judge to file a motion to dismiss his case.

Isaac Antonio Villegas Molina, a construction worker suing ICE with ACLU support, was detained again during an ISAP check-in after the Supreme Court refused his challenge to ICE. The detention occurred following the high court's rejection of his legal challenge.