A native of Ecuador being detained in the Moshannon Valley Processing Center claims in a federal petition that he is being housed in solitary confinement, which he describes as a “complete form of torture.”

The detainee, Pablo David Reyes Ponce, in his civil rights petition filed this week with the U.S. District Court in Johnstown, stated he has been in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement for almost two years.

He reported that, for much of this time, he has been in solitary confinement, which, he explains, has resulted in severe mental health issues.

His complaint reported that “solitary confinement has created hallucinations, disorientation, severe despair, exacerbation of trauma and a heightened suicide risk.”

Reyes Ponce is asking that a federal judge order his removal from solitary confinement and that he be provided with psychological and psychiatric treatment and that the staff at Moshannon Valley be trained in “disability-access protocols.”

He maintains in his complaint that his treatment at Moshannon Valley violates the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which prohibits discrimination in programs that receive federal funding.

Reyes Ponce is no stranger to the federal court in Johnstown.

Just last December, he filed a civil rights lawsuit against the government, in which he contended he informed ICE and Moshannon Valley that he was in danger of attack.

Reyes Ponce explained that, in August 2025, he provided information to a staff member with details of who may attack him.

On Sept. 2, 2025, Reyes Ponce continued, he was attacked in a hallway by a gang member in possession of a “sharp weapon.”

He said he suffered six stab wounds.

The detainee charged in his December complaint that his warnings went unheeded by authorities and that the attack caused him “physical and psychological harm.”

In his December lawsuit, he also stated he had been placed in solitary confinement, and he noted then that he wanted release from solitary confinement.

That lawsuit was referred to Magistrate Judge Kezia O.L. Taylor in Pittsburgh.

Taylor ordered Reyes Ponce to file an amended complaint by Feb. 24, 2026.

He failed to amend the complaint, and on March 23, Taylor recommended his December complaint be dismissed.

Ponce Reyes as of Monday filed a new complaint, again noting his deteriorating mental health, and also emphasizing that he has been in ICE custody for almost two years.

He finds himself in a precarious position.

The detainee reports that he was taken into custody in Newark on May 16, 2024.

He was issued a deportation order, as he explained, for not providing sufficient information to back up his claims that the Ecuadorian government and “criminal terrorist gangs” are trying to harm him.

Thus, he reports, the government cannot provide him immigration relief based on an asylum claim.

Yet the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia has blocked his removal because he has filed a motion to reopen his case before the Board of Immigration Appeals.

Also, he has another petition seeking review before the Third Circuit.

He could seek a bond hearing, in which the government would have to show he is either a flight risk or a danger to society to keep him detained, he pondered in his federal petition.

Reyes Ponced reported that the Department of Homeland Security on Jan. 22, 2026, transferred him and others to a federal prison in Lewisburg.

That “experiment” of holding ICE detainees in a federal prison ended on March 8 when, Reyes Ponce stated, “We were removed from the J-Block without notification or judicial order and placed in a van where we were told we were on the way to MVPC.”

One place where Reyes Ponce does not want to go is to his native land.

He writes, “The petitioner’s severely deteriorated mental health places him at special risk of inhuman or degrading treatment or torture if removed to Ecuador, and/or if kept in continuing indefinite detention.”

His new petition has once again been assigned to Magistrate Judge Taylor.