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An immigration detainee described the United States' largest immigration detention facility as a "graveyard of living people" in a harrowing new report.
The remark was made in December 2025 by a man identified as Lorenzo P. while he was detained at Camp East Montana, which is considered the largest immigration detention facility in U.S. history. Opened in mid-August 2025, the facility is located on the Fort Bliss military base straddling the state lines of New Mexico and Texas, with headquarters in El Paso.
The facility is described by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) as "a series of large canvas tents on gravel" that can currently hold up to 5,000 people, several dozen of whom alleged that they have been denied due process rights and have been abused and forced to live in inhumane conditions during the deportation process.
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The bombshell report comes on the heels of renewed protests against federal immigration agents following the deaths of two men killed by ICE officers within less than a week of each other earlier this month in Texas and Maine.
Subsequently, White House border czar Tom Homan declared that all ICE agents must wear body cameras.
ACLU documents alleged abuse at New Mexico-Texas ICE detention facility Camp East Montana
Lorenzo P. was among 80 immigration detainees interviewed by the ACLU for a newly-released 84-page report, titled "You're Only Getting Out Deported or Dead:' Abusive US Immigration Detention at Ft. Bliss," published on July 15.
"This place is a graveyard of living people. Anything can happen to you here," said Lorenzo P. from Camp East Montana in December 2025. He is among 71 of the 80 people interviewed who were detained at the massive facility, the ACLU said in the report.
The paramount ACLU report pulls the curtain on the alleged horrific conditions at Camp East Montana. The detainees' complaints echo scores of reports that have emerged since Trump returned to office and pushed full steam ahead with his 2024 presidential campaign promise to enact the largest deportation in the country's history.
Detainees allege 'cramped conditions' at 'filthy' tent facility
"The detention camp has the capacity to hold up to 5,000 people and consists of five 'soft-sided' tent-like structures that house detained people in penned enclosures," the report reads. "Inside, detainees said they were forced to live in filthy and cramped conditions with up to 72 people housed in each pod.
The report continues, "Researchers found evidence of punitive immigration enforcement practices, including cruel, degrading, and inhumane detention conditions; excessive force by guards; failures to provide medical and mental health care; coercive deportation practices; and systemic barriers to legal representation."
Detainees describe due process rights deprivation during deportation process
Detainees alleged that they were apprehended by unidentified masked officers accused of using excessive force, including beatings and tasers, during "workplace raids, immigration appointments and other community encounters."
More than 60 of those interviewed were arrested despite providing documentation of their legal residency status, the ACLU report says. Others described their treatment while being transferred to various facilities without "meaningful communication with family members of lawyers" as being "kidnapped."
Both the ACLU and Human Rights Watch documented incidents of detainees' locations not being accurately reflected in the U.S. government's detention locator systems, while gathering evidence from family members of detainees about ICE failing to provide them with information about the location of their loved ones. In some of these cases, the ACLU alleges, this constitutes enforced disappearance under international human rights law.
Detainees allege 'cruel, degrading and inhumane conditions' at Camp East Montana
Those interviewed at Camp East Montana described their experience at the massive facility as being marked by "cruel, degrading and inhumane living conditions that posed serious risks to their physical and mental health," allegedly including "bathrooms covered in feces, flooded cells, inadequate cleaning, and no access to soap, sanitizer and other basic hygiene supplies." There were also "widespread allegations of physical abuse by guards and facility personnel."
Others also alleged "being held indoors for prolonged periods without meaningful access to recreation, sunlight or fresh air. Some said they spent weeks without being allowed outside."
Other allegations ranged from medical neglect to inadequate meals, including inconsistent schedules, spoiled food and delays of up to 12 hours between meals.
“ICE’s Camp East Montana is a human rights disaster,” said Angélica César, Aryeh Neier Fellow at Human Rights Watch and the ACLU, in the report. “The US government should shut it down, conduct independent investigations into all abuses and deaths in custody, and put an end to mass deportations and mandatory immigration detention.”
