ICE Camp East Montana: 911 Calls Reveal Overcrowding and Medical Neglect
An investigation into the nation's largest Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility has uncovered a disturbing pattern of overcrowding, medical neglect, and malnutrition. Records obtained by the Associated Press from more than a hundred 911 calls at Camp East Montana on the Fort Bliss army base in El Paso, Texas, paint a grim picture of conditions since the facility opened last summer.
Current and former detainees describe a camp where approximately 3,000 people are forced to live in loud and unsanitary quarters. They report struggling to access healthcare as diseases spread, losing weight due to insufficient food, and fearing security guards known to use force to suppress disturbances. The data and recordings, along with interviews and court filings, reveal that serious medical and mental health emergencies have been routine.
Disturbing Incidents and Deaths
The AP investigation found that staff at Camp East Montana made nearly one 911 call per day in its first five months of operation. Incidents ranged from a man sobbing after being assaulted by another detainee to a doctor reporting a detainee banging his head against a wall while expressing suicidal thoughts. In another call, a nurse described a pregnant woman in severe pain who had contracted coronavirus.
Injured detainees included a 19-year-old man who fell from a bunk bed and a 79-year-old man struggling to breathe. At least 20 emergencies were reported as seizures, some resulting in serious head trauma. The calls show traumatized detainees have repeatedly attempted self-harm, with two incidents leading to death.
On January 3, ICE reported that security guards responded to a 55-year-old Cuban man trying to harm himself, using handcuffs and force to restrain him. A medical examiner ruled Geraldo Lunas Campos's death a homicide caused by asphyxia. On January 14, staff reported that a 36-year-old Nicaraguan man took his own life days after being detained in Minnesota during an anti-immigration crackdown. Records indicate at least six other suicide attempts.
Political Response and Contractor Scrutiny
Texas Congresswoman Veronica Escobar has toured the camp multiple times and demanded its closure. She described the facility as an experiment where people are losing their lives, calling for an investigation into contractor Acquisition Logistics LLC, which was awarded a contract worth up to $1.3 billion to build and operate the camp.
Escobar reported that during a visit, a female detainee showed her a meager serving of scrambled eggs that was still frozen in the middle. Detainees had protested after juice, fruit, and milk were removed from their meals. She also met with an Ecuadorian detainee whose arm was broken during a violent arrest in Minnesota; weeks later, fractured bones were still visible under his skin.
The Washington Post reported in September that a required ICE inspection found conditions at the facility violated at least 60 federal standards for immigration detention, though the report has never been released. A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson, who did not provide their name, rejected claims of substandard conditions, stating that detainees receive food, water, and medical treatment in a regularly cleaned facility.
However, former detainee Owen Ramsingh, who spent several weeks in the camp before deportation to the Netherlands, said, "Every day felt like a week. Every week felt like a month. Every month felt like a year. Camp East Montana was 1,000% worse than a prison." The facility has temporarily reduced its population to less than 1,900 and closed to visitors due to a measles outbreak, but concerns about abject cruelty and potential fraud persist.
