Human Rights Watch and ACLU Report 64 of 71 Detainees at Fort Bliss Camp Describe Beatings by Guards

Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union released an 84-page report on Wednesday, July 15, alleging widespread abuse at Camp East Montana, a privately run immigration detention facility on the U.S. Army's Fort Bliss base near El Paso, Texas.

The report, titled "'You're Only Getting Out Deported or Dead': Abusive US Immigration Detention at Ft. Bliss," is based on interviews with 80 people, including 71 detained at the camp, conducted between October 2025 and June 2026, according to the ACLU. Of those 71, 64, about 90%, said they had personally been beaten by guards or witnessed beatings of other detainees, according to both the ACLU and the Associated Press, as reported by PBS.

Camp East Montana is the largest immigration detention facility in the country, with capacity for 5,000 people. It's made up of soft-sided tent structures with no windows, housing detainees in caged pods of up to 72 people, according to the ACLU report.

What detainees told investigators

Detainees described guards in unmarked black clothing and masks, without name tags, entering pods in groups of 15 to 20 to carry out what one interviewee called indiscriminate beatings, according to Reason. One man told investigators he went a month without seeing sunlight because guards stopped taking his unit outside.

Angélica César, the Human Rights Watch fellow who led the research, said detainees reported life-threatening medical neglect, filthy living conditions, and having their communication with lawyers and family members cut off entirely. In some cases, she said, that isolation may amount to enforced disappearance under international law.

The report's title comes from an account by a man identified only as Javier, who was detained in Boston and transferred to Fort Bliss. According to NPR's Kat Lonsdorf, César said Javier was told by a guard during intake that the only way he'd leave Camp East Montana was through deportation or death.

More than 60 interviewees said they were arrested despite having documentation showing they were lawfully present in the U.S., according to the ACLU. Detainees also described arrests by masked officers who wouldn't identify themselves, and the use of excessive force, including tasers, during apprehension.

A documented pattern, not a single incident

This report doesn't stand alone. At least three detainees have died at Camp East Montana since it opened in August, according to PBS, including Geraldo Lunas Campos, who died January 3. DHS initially said Lunas Campos attempted suicide and that guards were trying to save him. The El Paso Medical Examiner's Office ruled the death a homicide by asphyxiation. Multiple detainees told investigators guards strangled him.

A Government Accountability Office report issued last month found that mismanagement by the Department of Homeland Security created unsafe conditions contributing to detainee deaths and suffering, and that evidence in at least one death was "missing or destroyed," according to PBS. The GAO report also found that millions of taxpayer dollars had gone to contractors amid documented failures.

ICE replaced its prime contractor, Acquisition Logistics LLC, in March. The Virginia-based company had been awarded a contract worth up to $1.3 billion to build and manage the camp despite having no prior experience running an ICE facility and never having won a federal contract worth more than $16 million, according to PBS. An internal ICE review reportedly documented 49 deficiencies, including violations tied to use of force, restraints, security, and medical care.

Despite the contractor change, Human Rights Watch and the ACLU say interviews conducted as recently as last month still found the same abuses.

DHS's response and the fairest read of it

DHS did not respond to PBS's request for comment before publication. But according to NPR, DHS denied all allegations in the report when reached separately, calling claims of inhumane conditions at Camp East Montana "categorically false" and stating flatly that no detainees are being beaten or abused.

Human Rights Watch and the ACLU are advocacy organizations with a stated position: they're calling for the facility to be shut down entirely and for an end to mandatory immigration detention, according to the ACLU statement. That's an interested source making a policy argument, not a neutral government audit.

But the GAO, a nonpartisan congressional watchdog, reached similar conclusions about mismanagement and unsafe conditions last month. A local medical examiner, not an advocacy group, ruled Lunas Campos's death a homicide. Those two facts don't come from Human Rights Watch or the ACLU.

Rep. Veronica Escobar, a Texas Democrat, visited the facility in November and called conditions inhumane, according to NPR. That's a single lawmaker's characterization, not an independent finding, and it comes from a member of the opposing party with an obvious political interest in criticizing the administration's immigration policy.

No criminal charges have been filed against any Camp East Montana guards or contractors as of this writing. No federal investigation into the broader pattern of abuse allegations has been announced. Whether ICE's internal reviews will result in accountability beyond a contractor swap remains unclear, as does whether Congress will act on the GAO's findings given that the same abuses were allegedly documented in interviews conducted after the contractor change in March.