Deported T&T man seeks US$10M over alleged ICE detention abuse

A Trinidad and To­ba­go per­ma­nent res­i­dent who was de­port­ed from the Unit­ed States last year is seek­ing US$10 mil­lion from the Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion, al­leg­ing that he suf­fered med­ical ne­glect and abuse while in im­mi­gra­tion de­ten­tion in Texas.

The claim was filed by the Amer­i­can Civ­il Lib­er­ties Union Foun­da­tion of Texas on be­half of 55-year-old El­ton Purvis, who spent sev­en months in sev­er­al im­mi­gra­tion de­ten­tion fa­cil­i­ties, in­clud­ing the South Texas De­ten­tion Com­plex in Pearsall.

Ac­cord­ing to the ACLU, Purvis is a Type 1 di­a­bet­ic who re­quires reg­u­lar med­ical mon­i­tor­ing and spe­cialised treat­ment. The or­gan­i­sa­tion al­leges that he was re­peat­ed­ly de­nied ad­e­quate med­ical care while in cus­tody and was found un­re­spon­sive on sev­er­al oc­ca­sions, re­quir­ing hos­pi­tal­i­sa­tion.

The claim forms part of a broad­er ef­fort by the ACLU, which has filed dozens of claims across the Unit­ed States against the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment on be­half of de­tainees who it says have "suf­fered se­ri­ous vi­o­lence, abuse, and ne­glect at the hands of fed­er­al law en­force­ment."

Purvis, who has nine US cit­i­zen chil­dren, was re­turn­ing to the Unit­ed States in May 2025 to at­tend the grad­u­a­tions of two of his sons when he was de­tained by US Im­mi­gra­tion and Cus­toms En­force­ment (ICE) agents at Boston's Lo­gan Air­port.

The claim al­leges that Purvis was suf­fer­ing from malar­ia at the time of his de­ten­tion and that ICE of­fi­cers con­fis­cat­ed his in­sulin and malar­ia med­ica­tion, pre­vent­ing him from tak­ing the drugs.

Court fil­ings state that Purvis did not re­ceive treat­ment for malar­ia dur­ing the first 12 days of his time in ICE cus­tody.

The claim fur­ther al­leges that guards re­peat­ed­ly ig­nored Purvis' re­quests for med­ical as­sis­tance. On one oc­ca­sion, he re­port­ed­ly sought help from a pass­ing nurse, who in­struct­ed guards to take him to the med­ical unit, but the re­quest was al­leged­ly ig­nored.

Ac­cord­ing to the claim, Purvis was found un­re­spon­sive in his cell at least three times be­cause of dan­ger­ous­ly low blood sug­ar lev­els. He was al­so tak­en to hos­pi­tal at least three times be­cause of what the ACLU de­scribed as "dan­ger­ous­ly low blood sug­ar lev­els", al­though those hos­pi­tal­i­sa­tions did not nec­es­sar­i­ly oc­cur on the same oc­ca­sions when he was found un­con­scious.

Purvis said his ex­pe­ri­ence in de­ten­tion left him fear­ful for his life.

"Be­ing in de­ten­tion broke my courage. It felt like they were try­ing to kill me," Purvis said. "I was so des­per­ate to re­ceive med­ical help. So many times, I knew I was on the verge of go­ing in­to di­a­bet­ic shock. I of­ten had to beg for help as my sug­ar dropped and I start­ed feel­ing short­ness of breath, dizzi­ness and see­ing stars. I would pray that the guards would send help be­fore I be­came un­re­spon­sive."

ACLU at­tor­ney Caro Rivera Nel­son said Purvis' ex­pe­ri­ence re­flect­ed con­di­tions faced by oth­er de­tainees in Texas im­mi­gra­tion fa­cil­i­ties.

"In­di­vid­u­als are left in in­hu­mane con­di­tions for months on end with­out ac­cess to ad­e­quate med­ical care, ed­i­ble food, potable wa­ter, or a way out," Nel­son said. "While in de­ten­tion, Mr Purvis filed over 100 griev­ances to ICE and fol­lowed every chan­nel avail­able to ask for med­ical help – noth­ing worked."

The ACLU has filed 54 claims across 17 states and Wash­ing­ton, D.C., as part of its chal­lenge to al­leged mis­treat­ment and ne­glect in fed­er­al de­ten­tion fa­cil­i­ties.