Advocacy Groups Demand Closure of Fort Bliss Migrant Facility After Two Additional Deaths

Immigrant rights organizations and Democratic lawmakers are urging the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to close Camp East Montana, a migrant detention facility at Fort Bliss Army base in West Texas. This call follows the deaths of Geraldo Lunas Campos and Victor Manuel Diaz, bringing the total documented deaths in ICE custody since the Trump administration began to 38. These recent fatalities occurred despite a December 8 warning from civil and human rights groups to acting ICE Director Todd Lyons about "alarming" conditions at the camp, which had already seen the death of Francisco Gaspar-Andrés just four months after its opening.

The December letter detailed reports from detainees at Camp East Montana, citing inedible food, medical neglect, solitary confinement, physical coercion, and alleged abusive sexual contact by private contractors staffing the facility. Some detainees also reported being driven to the border and ordered to self-deport, with instances of beatings by masked officers for refusal. ICE has stated that the deaths remain under investigation, though Victor Manuel Diaz's death is suspected to be a suicide and Geraldo Lunas Campos's death an attempted suicide.

Critics argue that Fort Bliss is becoming emblematic of a dangerous network of incarceration within immigration enforcement operations. Charlotte Weiss, a staff attorney at the Texas Civil Rights Project, stated that the government was aware of the severe conditions, leading to "tragic and preventable loss of three sacred lives." The facility, hastily constructed last year and managed by private contractors, has drawn comparisons to historical abuses, including the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II at the same military base.