The defendant list
Four detainees filed a federal lawsuit Saturday against six defendants: Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons, two ICE field office directors in El Paso, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and the Pentagon itself [1]. The case targets Camp East Montana, the largest ICE detention center in the United States, a sprawling tent camp in the Chihuahuan Desert that sits on U.S. Army land at Fort Bliss [1]. The facility opened in August 2025 and holds an average of 2,505 people on any given day this fiscal year, operating at roughly half its 5,000-person capacity [1].
The lawsuit names everyone because no single entity controls the camp. The Pentagon owns the land. DHS sets detention policy. ICE runs daily operations [1]. When conditions fail, the question is not just who is responsible, it is who has the power to intervene.
What the lawsuit alleges
The complaint describes severe beatings and sexual harassment by guards, squalid living conditions, spoiled and inadequate food, no meaningful programming or recreation, inadequate access to basic hygiene products, limited or no access to sunlight, and outbreaks of disease [1]. Gerald Akari Angye, a named plaintiff who has been at Camp East Montana for just over a month, was beaten so severely he was hospitalized and placed in a wheelchair, then locked in solitary confinement for 15 days [1].
Housing units lack windows and have a constant odor of urine and feces [1]. One detainee experienced dirty toilet water flowing into his sleeping area and wore the same clothes, including underwear, for three weeks [1]. Detainees reportedly receive only two pieces of bread, a piece of ham or bologna, a slice of cheese, and a cookie for all three meals [1]. They do not receive timely medications for serious medical issues such as HIV, cancer, and diabetes [1].
In February, the detention center was closed temporarily to visitors because of a measles outbreak [1]. On March 3, the Texas Department of Health confirmed active measles infections of 14 detainees at Camp East Montana [1]. Three reported deaths have occurred at the facility [1].
The plaintiffs are seeking class-action status. The American Civil Liberties Union is one of the organizations representing the detainees [1].
The jurisdictional split
The lawsuit names defendants across two cabinet departments because operational authority at Camp East Montana is genuinely unclear. The Pentagon controls access to the land, hence Defense Secretary Hegseth's inclusion as a defendant [1]. DHS sets the policy framework for immigration detention, hence Secretary Mullin's inclusion [1]. ICE operates the facility day to day, hence Director Lyons and two El Paso field office directors, Marisa Flores and Angel Garite, are named [1].
This is not a drafting error. When a detention facility sits on military land but operates under civilian immigration authority, the question of who can change conditions becomes structural. Can the base commander at Fort Bliss intervene in ICE operations? Can ICE field office directors override conditions on Pentagon property? Can DHS policy directives bind military installations?
The lawsuit does not answer these questions. It names all the actors and asks the court to sort out who holds the power.
What DHS says
DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis stated the claims in the lawsuit are "categorically false" [1]. DHS said ICE is regularly audited and inspected by external agencies to ensure compliance with performance-based national detention standards, and that detainees are provided with proper meals, quality water, blankets, medical treatment, and opportunities to communicate with family members and lawyers [1]. The agency stated that ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens [1].
The Pentagon has not issued a statement on the lawsuit [1].
DHS claims regular external audits ensure compliance with performance-based national detention standards [1]. Meanwhile: measles outbreak, three deaths, federal lawsuit alleging beatings and starvation rations. The gap between the audit regime and the conditions described in the complaint is the second question the lawsuit raises. The first is who has authority to act. The second is what inspection systems actually measure versus what they miss.
Congressional oversight
Texas Democrat Joaquin Castro led a congressional letter on the facility [1]. The letter represents oversight leverage, but the record does not show appropriations detail or specific demands. Congressional letters can create political pressure. They do not, by themselves, change operational authority on a military base.
What remains unresolved
The lawsuit is pending in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas [1]. No defendant has moved to dismiss yet. The case will either clarify who holds operational authority at Camp East Montana or it will settle before that question is answered.
Camp East Montana opened ten months ago and became the largest ICE detention center in the country within that span [1]. It runs at 50 percent capacity and is already generating federal lawsuits and congressional letters. The facility scaled faster than the operational systems required to run it. The lawsuit names six defendants across two cabinet departments because operational authority is genuinely unclear. The Pentagon controls access to the land. DHS sets detention policy. ICE runs daily operations. When conditions fail, the question is not just who is responsible, it is who has the power to intervene, and whether that ambiguity is a feature of the arrangement.
