Detention camp raising EJ concerns
Reporting describes detainees at a desert ICE camp alleging abuse while large generators at the facility burn substantial fuel, linking human-rights complaints to environmental impacts. The story highlights both testimony about conditions and the facility’s heavy energy use. (theguardian.com)
Reporting published April 15 described detainees at Camp East Montana in El Paso alleging abuse and near-freezing tent conditions at the same facility where giant generators burn large amounts of fuel. (theguardian.com) Camp East Montana sits on Fort Bliss land in west Texas and is the nation’s largest immigration detention facility. Immigration and Customs Enforcement opened it in August 2025, with an initial capacity of 1,000 and plans to expand to 5,000 people. (elpasomatters.org) The Guardian said former detainees described dust covering blankets, airways clogged with sand, and air conditioning that ran so hard the tents felt close to freezing. The report tied those conditions to rows of generators needed to power the remote camp. (theguardian.com) A separate federal inspection, conducted February 10 through 12 and posted in early April, found 49 deficiencies at the camp. Inspectors cited problems involving medical care, security, sanitation, and use-of-force procedures. (elpasomatters.org) The camp has been under scrutiny for months. NBC, citing the Associated Press, reported that the facility averaged nearly 3,000 detainees in six tent encampments and that at least 130 calls to 911 were made in its first five months, including calls linked to deaths, suicide attempts, fights, and medical emergencies. (nbcdfw.com) Those complaints have drawn both civil-rights and environmental-justice scrutiny because the same site combines confinement in a harsh desert setting with heavy diesel power use. The Guardian framed the generators’ fuel burn and emissions as part of the story, not a separate issue from the detention conditions. (theguardian.com) Immigration and Customs Enforcement has already changed operators at the facility. On March 13, the agency said it was terminating Acquisition Logistics and replacing it with Amentum Services, saying the new contractor would improve medical care and other services. (nbcdfw.com) Members of Congress and advocacy groups have pushed for stronger action. Representative Veronica Escobar and 23 other House members called for the camp to be shut down on February 26, while the American Civil Liberties Union renewed its own closure demand after reports that one detainee’s death was ruled a homicide. (escobar.house.gov) (aclu.org) For now, the camp remains open, and the latest reporting adds a second line of criticism to the first: what detainees say happened inside the tents, and what it takes to keep a giant tent jail running in the desert. (theguardian.com)
