On June 8, 2015, this class action lawsuit was filed in Arizona federal district court on behalf of three individuals subjected to deplorable conditions in U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) holding cells in the border patrol’s Tucson sector. The lawsuit challenged the overcrowded, unbearably cold, and unsanitary conditions that adults and children were subjected to as violations to the U.S Constitution and the CBP’s own meager policies. The goal was to ensure that, moving forward, anyone held in such facilities are provided with humane, safe, and sanitary conditions that meet basic constitutional standards, including adequate food, water, basic hygienic needs (including toilet paper, soap, sanitary pads, diapers, and showers or baths), access to medical screenings and care, and humane temperatures. In addition, detainees must have due process protections and the CBP should monitor the facilities closely to ensure humane and safe conditions are provided. 

The resulting permanent injunction found that CBP had violated the constitutional rights of immigrants in their custody by depriving them of basic human needs and for the first time mandated that immigrants in CBP custody have access to beds, showers, medical screenings, food, water, and personal hygienic materials.