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The lawsuit seeks immediate disclosure of information about the dangers to which detained immigrants could be exposed.

Last week, a coalition of Latino advocacy and environmental organizations sued the U.S. Army for failing to release information about toxic waste contamination on two military bases in Texas where the Trump administration plans to detain thousands of immigrant children and families. One of the sites, Fort Bliss Army Base in El Paso, is under investigation for contaminated water, air, and soil from past military operations. The lawsuit seeks immediate disclosure of information about the dangers to which detained immigrants could be exposed.

There is real cause for concern about the dangers of toxic chemicals at the proposed detention sites. Fort Bliss is currently listed as a federal Superfund site, and in 2013, the Army reported detecting radiation from a former nuclear weapons bunker on the premises. Goodfellow Air Force Base, the other proposed detention site, also poses the threat of a closed but uncapped landfill near where immigrants would be detained. The hazardous chemicals that have contaminated the forts have the potential cause cancer, neurological damage and injury to major human organs, according to the complaint, and there is no indication that the Trump administration plans to protect detained immigrants from these harms.

The Hispanic Federation, Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, GreenLatinos, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, National Hispanic Medical Association, and Southwest Environmental Center are suing under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) after the Army failed to timely respond to their request for records regarding toxic chemicals at the site. FOIA is a federal law that promotes an informed public by requiring government agencies to make information publicly available upon request, unless the information falls under any of a narrow set of exceptions.

In this case, not only must the government make the requested information available, but it must do so on an expedited basis. FOIA regulations require expedited release of information in cases of compelling need. There is a compelling need for this information, the plaintiffs claim, because detaining migrants at these military bases could pose an “imminent threat to the lives and physical safety of the families and children who would be detained at these proposed camps”.

To learn more about this case, read Earthjustice’s press release about investigating the army forts here. To submit your own Freedom of Information Act request to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), click here.