On October 14, 2021, Carlos Murillo Vega, a man who spent 14 months in solitary confinement while detained by ICE, sued private detention company Management and Training Corporation (MTC) for subjecting him to unlawful conditions of confinement that violated ICE policy and amounted to torture.  

Murillo was incarcerated in solitary confinement for 14 months beginning on December 13, 2019, at the Imperial Regional Detention Facility, where he spent 23 hours a day alone — a form of torture that was devastating to both his physical and psychological wellbeing. His cell was so small that when he stretched out his arms, he could nearly touch both walls.  

In addition to seeking damages to compensate Murillo for the lifelong harm caused by abuses in the detention center, the suit seeks to hold MTC accountable for abuses that other individuals suffered while incarcerated. 

The plaintiff, Carlos Murillo, is represented by BraunHagey & Borden, LLP, UCLA School of Law’s Human Rights Litigation Clinic, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, and the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice.