EL PASO — Immigrants detained at Camp East Montana at Fort Bliss say they have been coerced by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to cross the border into the Mexican desert — even if they have no connection to Mexico — or be sent to jail in third countries, human rights groups allege in a letter to the federal border protection agency.
The facility has become a “human and civil rights catastrophe,” the American Civil Liberties Union and other organizations said in the letter sent Monday to ICE and Fort Bliss officials. The organizations are calling for the camp to be shut down, alleging detained immigrants are subject to beatings and sexual abuse by officers, as well as medical neglect, hunger and insufficient food, and denial of access to attorneys.
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A number of detainees suffered serious injuries due to these physical abuses, the report alleges, and in one reported case a detained teenager said he lost consciousness and required hospitalization after being slammed to the ground.
“Officers have engaged in a widespread and unreasonable pattern and practice of excessive force, including the use of abusive sexual contact by officers when utilizing force,” the organizations said in a news release.
Neither the U.S. Department of Homeland Security nor Fort Bliss immediately responded to El Paso Matters’ request for comment. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told the Washington Post that “no detainees are being beaten or abused” and that all people being deported to third countries are given due process protections.
The 19-page letter follows months of interviews with more than 45 detained people at Fort Bliss and is accompanied by 16 sworn declarations by immigrants detained at the facility, ACLU said in the news release. They’re calling for a thorough investigation into all the alleged abuses.
Other organizations that signed the letter include the ACLU of New Mexico, the ACLU of Texas, Estrella del Paso, Human Rights Watch, Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center and the Texas Civil Rights Project.
“We can’t stay silent about what is happening at Camp East Montana. After speaking with dozens of detained immigrants, the reports are clear: abuse, neglect, and unsafe living conditions are widespread,” Estrella del Paso, a nonprofit organization of the Catholic Diocese of El Paso, posted on Instagram, demanding “immediate action and accountability.”
Third-country removals
The groups are calling for President Donald Trump’s administration to halt all third-country removals from Fort Bliss, such as deportations to Mexico of non-Mexican immigrants, until procedural safeguards are in place.
According to the ACLU report, ICE officers reportedly handcuffed non-Mexican detainees at Camp East Montana, loaded them onto vans and transported them over an hour away to the U.S.-Mexico border near Santa Teresa, New Mexico. Masked officers then allegedly instructed detainees to “jump” into Mexico to be deported.
The alleged efforts to force people into Mexico would not comply with U.S. and international laws on third-country deportations, which require the consent of the third country and promises not to subject those being returned to persecution or abuse.
In one sworn declaration, a Cuban immigrant held at the Fort Bliss facility said officers handcuffed him and about 20 others, placed them on a bus and drove them to the border. There, they were told to get off the bus and cross into Mexico.
“If we don’t want to go to Mexico, then we would either be sent to a jail cell in El Salvador or Africa,” Isaac, a pseudonym used to protect his identity, said in his declaration. He told lawyers that guards hit him, slammed him against the wall about 10 times and grabbed and crushed his testicles.
Detainees who refused to cross into Mexico say they were threatened with criminal charges, long-term imprisonment or violence, the report states, citing similar claims by other Cuban immigrants.
It’s not clear from the detainees’ statements provided by the ACLU whether any migrants crossed into Mexico under the conditions described. Some of the collected affidavits state those who signed what “appeared” to be voluntary deportation papers were separated from those who refused to sign and not seen from again.
Third-country deportation refers to the U.S. sending someone to a country that is neither their home country nor a country of their citizenship.
Historically rare and based on individual cases, the practice expanded sharply under the second Trump administration as a tool to remove or intimidate immigrants who could not legally be returned to their home countries due to risks of persecution, according to the American Immigration Council.
These actions, including transfers to places where people faced imprisonment or danger, raise serious concerns about compliance with U.S. laws prohibiting deportation to countries where individuals may be persecuted or tortured, the nonprofit organization that advocates for immigration justice said.
The U.S. Supreme Court in June temporarily upheld the Trump administration’s third-country deportation policies, blocking a lower court’s order that required 15 days notice. The Supreme Court’s ruling is pending the outcome of an appeal to the lower court, expected to be heard in federal court in Massachusetts this month, the Washington Post reported. In July, ICE instructed agency personnel they could remove people to third countries with six hours notice.
The ACLU alleges detention officers threatening immigrants to cross into Mexico runs counter to the protocols governing third-country deportations — including ICE’s own guidance following the court rulings.
Medical neglect, other allegations
Other allegations in the ACLU report include:
- Medical neglect: Detainees report delayed or denied medical, dental and mental health care, including failure to administer prescription medication on time or at all, despite serious chronic conditions.
- Food and hygiene: Conditions are described as substandard and unsanitary. Detainees report insufficient food portions, spoiled or inedible meals, lack of adequate hygiene supplies such as soap and clean clothes, and unsanitary sleeping and living spaces.
- Restricted access to legal counsel: Access to attorneys and legal resources are severely restricted or effectively denied: the facility reportedly lacks a functioning law library, detainees have limited or non-private phone access, and legal visits are often blocked or delayed.
The detained teenager, who uses Samuel as a pseudonym for his safety, told attorneys he was beaten by officers, sustained injuries across his body and broke his front tooth after being slammed to the ground.
Samuel attested one officer ”grabbed my testicles and firmly crushed them,” while another “forced his fingers deep into my ears.” He said he felt dizzy and fought to remain conscious while an officer laughed at him for having a chipped tooth and said Samuel was “like a little girl,” the report states. Samuel lost consciousness and was transported to a hospital by ambulance.
Continued allegations of abuse at Camp East Montana
Camp East Montana opened in August in what was an active construction site and now holds more than 2,700 men and women — part of a militarized expansion of immigration detention under the Trump administration. The Washington Post in September reported the facility violated more than 60 federal detention standards within its first 50 days, citing a leaked internal ICE inspection report.
DHS called the report “false and misleading,” with McLaughlin in a statement saying any claims of inhumane conditions at ICE detention centers “categorically false.” The statement said all detainees are provided with proper meals, medical treatment and are provided opportunities to communicate with attorneys and family members.
The $1.2 billion facility — expected to grow to about 5,000 detainees to become the country’s largest federal detention center for civil detainees — is funded by the Department of Defense under the reconciliation bill. The Big Beautiful Bill provided $45 billion in supplemental funding to double migrant detention capacity nationwide to 100,000 beds.
In a November letter to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and ICE Acting Director Tom Lyons, Democratic U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar called the conditions at Camp East Montana “dangerous and inhumane.”
“They have been since the facility opened at the beginning of August (when it was still an active construction site), and only seem to be deteriorating,” the El Paso congresswoman wrote. “It is increasingly clear that it is not a safe nor professionally managed facility.”
She said staff are unable to maintain accurate population counts, and pressed for answers about staffing, vendor changes and protocols.
Escobar said people held at Camp East Montana continue to face unsafe and unhealthy conditions, including foul-tasting drinking water, poor-quality food and inconsistent laundry services that force some detainees to wash clothes in showers. She also cited unsanitary dorms and flooding and sewage backups.
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This article first appeared on El Paso Matters and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.