Inhumane conditions at ICE detention camp, lawsuit says

An aerial view shows the ICE detention facility in El Paso. (Reuters: Paul Ratje)

Civil rights groups are suing the largest immigration detention centre in the United States over alleged human rights abuses.

The lawsuit alleges guard beatings, poor medical care and indiscriminate use of solitary confinement for detainees.

It is the first lawsuit against the facility following three deaths in nine months at the camp.

The largest immigration detention centre in the United States is being sued over alleged human rights abuses.

Three people have died in the nine months since the Camp East Montana opened on the outskirts of El Paso in Texas.

The American Civil Liberties Union and other groups brought the complaint on behalf of four people currently held at the desert facility, a sprawling tent encampment set up under US President Donald Trump's mass-deportation strategy.

The action names camp operator US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and parent agency the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) among the defendants.

It is the first lawsuit against the facility, located on the Fort Bliss military base, and aims to improve conditions for its more than 2,700 detainees, the ACLU has said in a statement.

Protesters opposing mass deportations by ICE at Fort Bliss in August. (Reuters: Paul Ratje)

A DHS spokesperson said claims there were inhumane conditions at the camp were categorically false.

A congressionally mandated inspection of the camp's temporary structures in February found 49 violations of detention standards, including 11 related to "use of force and restraints" and five related to "medical care".

"We're suing to ensure that no other human being has to endure the inhumane treatment," said Kyle Virgien, an attorney for the National Prison Project of the ACLU.

Advocates warn ICE's rapid expansion of immigration detention in the US has led to inhumane conditions, deaths and abuse.

Detainees are confined in windowless enclosures where they suffer physical abuse by guards, abhorrent medical and mental health care, indiscriminate use of solitary confinement and exposure to diseases such as measles and tuberculosis, the lawsuit says.

The DHS spokesperson said no detainees were being beaten, abused or denied medical care at the camp.

The spokesperson said the camp had no measles cases as of March 12 and there had been no spike in deaths in ICE custody under the Trump administration.

"ICE takes seriously the health and safety of all those detained in our custody," the spokesperson said in a statement.

Venezuelan immigrant Erik Ivan