Lawsuit alleges solitary confinement, medical neglect at Indiana ICE detention facility

Civil rights groups filed a federal class-action lawsuit on October 29, 2026, alleging widespread abuse, prolonged solitary confinement, unsanitary conditions, and life-threatening medical neglect at Indiana's Miami Correctional Facility. The suit targets federal and state officials following the 2026 deaths of two immigration detainees, Lorth Sim and Tuan Van Bui. The Department of Homeland Security forcefully denied the claims, calling allegations of subprime conditions false.

Lawsuit filed over Indiana ICE facility

• ▪The American Civil Liberties Union and partner legal groups filed a class-action lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security, ICE, and Indiana state officials alleging inhumane conditions
• ▪The Department of Homeland Security rejected the lawsuit allegations as false, stating that ICE detainees are provided comprehensive medical care and placed in administrative segregation primarily for non-punitive protection.
• ▪Three named plaintiffs—Sergei Vasenin, Cynthia Acevedo, and Kemoye Muslar—have no U.S. criminal convictions and are being held in civil immigration detention while awaiting deportation proceedings.

Abuse and solitary confinement conditions

• ▪During facility lockdowns, detainees were kept in tiny cells smaller than a parking space, including plaintiff Kemoye Muslar whose cell was flooded with sewage water for three days.
• ▪Correctional officers at the Miami Correctional Facility routinely place detainees in solitary confinement for weeks or months over minor offenses, leading to overcrowding where two detainees share small isolation cells.
• ▪Detainees at the Miami Correctional Facility are subjected to physical abuse, pepper spray, excessive force, and xenophobic racial slurs from facility staff who have referred to immigrants as a 'plague.'
• ▪Plaintiff Sergei Vasenin spent nine weeks in solitary confinement in a cold cell for up to 24 hours a day, causing severe mental distress and suicidal ideation.

Medical neglect and detainee deaths

• ▪Two ICE detainees died at the Miami Correctional Facility in 2026: 59-year-old Cambodian national Lorth Sim on February 16 after being denied prescribed diabetes medication, and 55-year-old Vietnamese national Tuan Van Bui on April 1.
• ▪For-profit medical care provider Centurion Health faced severe staffing shortages and medical care backlogs at the Miami Correctional Facility, violating state contract limits following the influx of ICE detainees.
• ▪Transgender detainee Cynthia Acevedo was denied a rape kit, HIV testing, and necessary medical examination after reporting a sexual assault, while also suffering increased epileptic seizures due to missing or altered medication.

Miami Correctional Facility background

• ▪The Miami Correctional Facility, a state maximum-security prison with a record of violence and understaffing, was converted to hold ICE detainees in 2025 through a multi-million-dollar deal between Indiana Governor Mike Braun and the Trump administration.
• ▪Immigrant detainees began arriving at the Miami Correctional Facility in October 2025, where they are held in the same prison that houses maximum-security state prisoners.