ACLU Statement on Senate Vote to Add $70 Billion to ICE and Border Patrol’s Bloated Budget

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Tennessee, and National Immigration Law Center filed a federal class-action lawsuit today challenging a new Tennessee law, HB 1704, that unconstitutionally usurps federal immigration enforcement power by making it a crime for certain immigrants to remain in the state. Courts across the country have repeatedly reaffirmed that immigration enforcement is a power that belongs exclusively to the federal government — not the states. Tennessee’s law, however, creates a new crime for people with final removal orders who have not left the state. HB 1704 is part of a larger framework of new extreme anti-immigration state laws aimed at criminalizing noncitizens’ presence within a state either by punishing entry, or in this case, lack of departure. “The rule has been clear for well over a century: Immigration enforcement is exclusively a federal power. The state’s overreach here is unlawful and inhumane, creating fear and upending lives for families, neighbors, and communities across Tennessee,” said Hannah Steinberg, staff attorney with the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project. Plaintiffs in this case include: A 35-year-old Memphis resident who came to the United States on a visa when he was very young. His family applied for asylum, but the application was denied, and he was ordered removed when he was a teenager. He later applied for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and has had DACA ever since. He has lived in Memphis for decades and fears he will now be arrested, detained, and prosecuted under the state’s new failure-to-depart law. A 58-year-old woman who arrived in the United States a quarter century ago on a visitor’s visa. After she applied for asylum, her application was denied and she was issued a removal order. She has applied for relief under the Violence Against Women Act. For the past 25 years, she has lived in Memphis. Her entire life is in Tennessee — her sons, including one U.S. citizen son who is starting college and she financially supports; her job, where she has worked for decades; her doctors and immigration lawyer; and her friends and neighbors. She too now lives in fear. “HB 1704 would threaten our neighbors who have families here and have lived here for years,” said Zee Scout, staff attorney at the ACLU of Tennessee. “This is yet another example of the state of Tennessee improperly wielding its power to baselessly attack neighbors and families who make this a better, richer state for all. We are filing this case to defend our communities against this unconstitutional law.” “HB 1704 does exactly what courts have warned states not to do for decades. It is a cruel and unlawful attempt to punish people just for living in Tennessee, and the state has no authority to enact this new law,” said Peter McGraw, deputy legal director at the National Immigration Law Center. The lawsuit seeks to block the new law from taking effect on July 1. The complaint is here.

The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Tennessee, and National Immigration Law Center filed a federal class-action lawsuit challenging a new Tennessee law, HB 1704, that unconstitutionally usurps federal immigration enforcement power by making it a crime for certain immigrants to remain in the state.  

EL PASO, Texas — Legal organizations sued Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Friday night over inhumane conditions at Camp East Montana, a massive immigration detention tent camp at the Fort Bliss military base in El Paso. The lawsuit and motion for class certification were filed on behalf of four people seeking to represent a class of all others detained at Camp East Montana and is the first lawsuit against the nation’s largest immigration detention center. The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Texas, Texas Civil Rights Project, Human Rights Watch, and the law firm Farella Braun + Martel LLP documented in their filing accounts of horrific rights violations, including: Severe medical neglect and disease outbreaks, including a months-long measles outbreak that infected at least 14 people Violent uses of force by officers against detained immigrants and coercive threats of deportation Excessive and arbitrary use of solitary confinement to punish people for requesting basic needs like medical care or hygiene Inadequate and rancid food that have caused detained people to lose extreme amounts of weight Exposure to dust storms through openings in tent walls that subjects people to respiratory disease Dangerous and unsanitary living conditions in the tent camp, among other rights violations The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas and asks the court to find the conditions at Camp East Montana violate detained people’s Fifth Amendment right to due process and the Administrative Procedure Act. "I have lived through the worst days and months of my life here in ICE detention at Ft. Bliss in El Paso,” said Erik Ivan Rodriguez, a named plaintiff in the lawsuit. “This lawsuit is very important to me and to all the people who are detained here and suffering. There are many good people here who were just looking for a better future. I had to leave my family and country behind because the government was so bad. Sometimes, sadly, I think that these people in power in this country are just as bad. I have suffered a lot during my time here, including experiencing physical violence as officials tried to coerce me to sign deportation papers.” ​​​​ The lawsuit comes after several of the same legal organizations — along with ACLU of New Mexico, Estrella del Paso, Human Rights Watch, Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, and the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center — sent a letter in December 2025 and another in May 2026 to the federal government detailing interviews with dozens of detained people at Camp East Montana, who told lawyers that officers have engaged in a widespread and unreasonable pattern and practice of excessive force, medical neglect, and forcing detainees to endure dehumanizing living conditions. In less than a year since the facility’s opening, there have been three recorded deaths, including that of one man who was beaten to death by guards after asking for his inhaler. “The conditions here in this ICE tent camp in a desert are inhumane and cruel. No human being should ever have to go through this,” added Gerald Akari Angye, also a named plaintiff. “I have already experienced torture in my home country of Cameroon and I never thought I would experience such severely violent treatment by guards here in the United States of America. I have been beaten here and even today, I still have a brace on my hands and wrist. I am in pain and I am scared to be here. No one deserves such cruel treatment. We are all humans and deserve to be treated like it.” The Trump administration hastily opened the sprawling tent camp in August 2025, despite warnings from members of Congress and advocates that the facility would be a humanitarian disaster. The facility is located on the military base formerly used to intern people of Japanese descent during World War II and has the capacity to hold up to 5,000 people, making it the country’s largest immigration detention center. “People detained here at Camp East Montana deserve humane treatment. It feels like we are just political pawns taken from our jobs and families and forced into a temporary tent that is not designed for human life,” said Navdeep, another named plaintiff in the lawsuit. “We could die here, and it feels like no one here would care. With everything happening behind closed doors, I worry the people running this place might cover up the truth about a death or the other injustices that happen here. It’s important for people to know the truth of what is happening here. Being part of this lawsuit is important to me because many people are vulnerable or they become weak because of the conditions here. Even though we come from many different places, we are all human. I want to be a voice for everyone here.” “This place wears people down even after a couple of days and I have been here for over eight months,” added ZOR, a plaintiff in the lawsuit, who is using a pseudonym to protect his privacy. “The way this place is run is lawless. The people who should be upholding the law are ignoring it. The saddest part is seeing families being torn apart. I am one of many parents in here who are missing seeing our children grow up. My largest sorrow is that my young children are also suffering because of my absence from their lives. I want to be part of this lawsuit because I want a better world for my children to live in, one that does not treat a single person the way those of us here have been treated.” Additional quotes from co-counsel are as follows: “Camp East Montana is nothing short of a civil rights catastrophe,” said Kyle Virgien, senior staff attorney at the ACLU’s National Prison Project. “Since the day it opened, the facility has repeatedly made headlines for horrific rights violations and even the deaths of three detained people, yet ICE has still evaded accountability for its conduct. We’re suing to ensure that no other human being has to endure the inhumane treatment that the Trump administration has inflicted on our clients.” “Camp East Montana is at the epicenter of the Administration's cruel deportation agenda,” said Savannah Kumar, staff attorney at the ACLU of Texas. “People from across the country have been transported to a military base in the middle of the desert and locked in a tent detention camp plagued by death, outbreaks of disease, and beatings by guards. The lawsuit sheds light on the horrendous conditions the U.S. government has imposed upon people detained at this tent camp. Our clients' experiences add to a record of cruel and inhumane treatment at this site that is layered upon the shameful history of Japanese internment on this land decades prior.” “Camp East Montana has had far too many dangerous and deadly consequences,” said Rochelle Garza, president of the Texas Civil Rights Project. “This lawsuit seeks accountability and justice for those whose lives have been lost and detainees who have been subjected to outrageous conditions, complete lack of medical care, and stripped of their dignity without a second thought. For our clients and their loved ones, the Texas Civil Rights Project and our partners are working to hold the federal government and those behind Camp East Montana accountable for their negligence and harm.” “Farella is proud to stand with these great civil rights organizations to highlight and address the deplorable conditions at Camp East Montana,” said Cynthia Castillo, partner at Farella Braun + Martel LLP. “Every individual, regardless of immigration status, deserves to be treated with basic human dignity. We firmly believe in upholding the rule of law and the Constitution, and we are honored to have this opportunity to support the rights of those detained at Camp East Montana.” The full complaint is available here: https://www.aclu.org/cases/akari-angye-et-al-v-ice?document=Complaint Handwritten statement from Gerald Akari Angye, a named plaintiff, is available here: https://www.aclutx.org/app/uploads/2026/05/Handwritten-Statement-Gerald-Akari-Angye.pdf Handwritten statement from Erik Rodriguez, another named plaintiff, is available here: https://www.aclutx.org/app/uploads/2026/05/Erik-Rodriguez-Press-statement.pdf