Civil Rights Coalition Demands Closure of Fort Bliss Detention Camp
An array of local and national advocacy groups has urged the government to shut down the immigration facility at Fort Bliss army base, citing serious abuses. Their claims include physical violence, sexual assault and secret deportations that bypass legal channels.
Allegations Laid Out in 19-Page Letter
In a detailed letter to ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons and Fort Bliss commanders, eight organizations—including the American Civil Liberties Union, Human Rights Watch, Estrella del Paso, the Texas Civil Rights Project and Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center—accuse officers at Camp East Montana of violating “agency policies and standards, as well as statutory and constitutional protections.” They argue that the tent complex, housing over 2,700 people, should be closed immediately.
According to sworn statements from more than 45 detainees, some masked agents forced individuals to “jump” the barrier on the US-Mexico border, under threats of imprisonment. Non-Mexican nationals—particularly asylum seekers from Cuba and Guatemala—allegedly were shackled, driven an hour away to Santa Teresa, New Mexico, and ordered to cross into Mexico without any formal removal proceedings.
“The masked people sometimes beat on people to get them to jump the wall even if they don’t want to,” said “Eduardo,” a Cuban detainee identified by a pseudonym. He recalled officers warning him that refusal would result in federal charges and transfer to a prison in “Africa or El Salvador.”
The letter also details incidents of excessive force and sexual violence inside the facility. In one account, a Cuban man known as “Isaac” said guards slammed his head into a wall and then “grabbed and crushed my testicles between their fingers, which was very painful and humiliating.” A teenage detainee, “Samuel,” reported that an officer “grabbed my testicles and firmly crushed them” while another “forced his fingers deep into my ears,” leaving him unconscious and later billed for the ambulance ride to treat broken teeth and testicular trauma.
Detainees describe substandard living conditions in the soft-sided tents, which house 72 people each and suffer from plumbing failures. Sewage backups have reportedly flooded living and dining areas, forcing migrants to clean up with their own clothing due to a lack of supplies. The letter also accuses staff of “deliberate indifference” to medical needs, citing diabetics denied insulin and hypertensive patients left untreated until emergencies, as well as “fist-sized” spoiled rations leading to rapid weight loss.
Official Denials and Calls for Oversight
ICE officials in El Paso referred inquiries to the DHS, whose assistant secretary, Tricia McLaughlin, issued a written statement: “Any claim that there are ‘inhumane’ conditions at ICE detention centers are categorically false. No detainees are being beaten or abused.” She emphasized that unauthorized entrants “could end up in any number of third countries” and defended third-country agreements as essential for due process and national safety.
In a Washington Post report that first mentioned the letter, the newspaper said it had “independently obtained internal ICE records verifying that the four Cubans resisted removal on or around the dates they said the events took place,” while also noting the Post “could not verify other details about the allegations, because the detainees had little means to document their experiences.” McLaughlin told the Post that detainees receive proper meals, showers, medical treatment, and access to lawyers and family, adding, “No lawbreakers in the history of human civilization have been treated better than illegal aliens in the United States. Get a grip.”
Advocates point to limited media access and the remote location on a military base as barriers to independent oversight. Eunice Hyunhye Cho, senior counsel at the ACLU National Prison Project, warned, “Placing thousands of people in tent camps in the middle of the desert, in a military base, without adequate staffing was a recipe for humanitarian disaster,” adding, “Although shocking, but not surprising, this nightmare has come true.”
Local officials, including Texas congresswoman Veronica Escobar, have echoed concerns, describing reports of “dangerous and inhumane” conditions and labeling the site a “public health hazard” requiring immediate transparency from DHS.
