Camp East Montana, the newest and largest of the new migrant detention centers opening throughout the nation, has been met with criticism from immigration advocates after formally opening Sunday.
Protesters greeted the opening of the ability over the weekend.
The detention middle, on the grounds of Texas’ Fort Bliss, can presently home 1,000 migrants, with officers saying it might probably ultimately broaden to carry 5,000.
“We’re demanding that this administration do what they are saying they’ll do if they are not going to shut the camps,” Marisa Limon Garza, govt director of Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Middle, informed El Paso ABC affiliate KVIA. “At a minimal, we want entry to individuals who have due course of and may have entry to attorneys.”
The criticism got here as a federal decide on Monday heard arguments from lawyers for detainees on the Florida detention middle often called “Alligator Alcatraz,” who say they lack correct lawyer entry and are being held with none formal felony or immigration costs towards them.
Democratic Rep. Veronica Escobar, who toured the brand new Texas detention middle Monday, stated of the ability’s price ticket, “I would like you to consider how a lot good that cash might do in El Paso if it had been spent on the group, if it had been spent on entry to little one look after El Paso children, if it had been spent on common pre-Ok for El Paso children, if it had been spent on well being look after El Pasoans.”
“There’s a super quantity of excellent that that cash might do for El Pasoans, however it’s as an alternative getting used to fund mass deportation by the Trump administration,” she stated.
Protesters opposing mass deportations by ICE maintain indicators throughout a protest held on the Cassidy Gate at Fort Bliss, the U.S. Military base the place a big new ICE detention facility is being constructed, in El Paso, Texas, August 17, 2025.
Paul Ratje/Reuters
“It is necessary for folks to grasp we aren’t speaking gardeners or housekeepers,” stated Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who visited the ability final week. “These are individuals who did not present as much as court-ordered hearings. There isn’t a due course of concern. They haven’t any authorized proper to be right here.”
“Underneath President Trump’s management, we’re working at turbo velocity on cost-effective and progressive methods to ship on the American folks’s mandate for mass deportations of felony unlawful aliens,” Division of Homeland Safety Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin stated in an announcement Monday. “The One Huge Stunning Invoice has supplied historic funding to assist us perform this mandate, particularly by securing sufficient detention capability to take care of a median every day inhabitants of 100,000 unlawful aliens and 80,000 new ICE beds.”
“The Fort Bliss Facility will supply all the things a standard ICE detention facility gives, together with entry to authorized illustration and a regulation library, entry to visitation, leisure area, medical remedy area and nutritionally balanced meals,” McLaughlin stated. “It additionally gives mandatory lodging for disabilities, weight loss plan, and spiritual beliefs.”
ABC Information’ Luke Barr contributed to this report.
