Owen Ramsingh talked about his detainment at the Camp East Montana ICE detention facility in El Paso, Texas in a Facebook post Thursday morning.

Ramsingh was born in the Netherlands and emigrated to the U.S. as a child. His wife told KOMU 8 he maintained a green card for decades, but after a trip to the Netherlands last fall, he was detained on Sept. 30 at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.

A Department of Homeland Security official cited a prior drug conviction from when Ramsingh was a teenager as the reason for his detainment and justification for his deportation.

Since his detainment, Ramsingh’s family has used a Facebook page to inform the Columbia community about his status. 

According to the Facebook post, Ramsingh experienced starvation, “horrific” living conditions and witnessed a murder.

In the post, Ramsingh described how Akima security, the security force that ran the facility, was unprofessional and dangerous. Ramsingh recounts how he heard security guards taking bets on who was going to commit suicide.

Ramsingh also witnessed the security force use excessive force on detainees and witnessed how the security force shackled, cuffed and strangled a 55-year-old man to death. Ramsingh said that Akima security reported the death as a suicide to the press and law enforcement.


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Ramsingh said he was given three meals a day, with each containing about 12 ounces of food, and that the food they got was only enough to survive. Ramsingh’s post says there were five round tables with six seats each in his pod, but detainees were only allowed to eat in the tents or near the bathrooms. 

He said he lived in a large tent on the Fort Bliss military base in El Paso Texas. Ramsingh said he was put into a pod of 72 other people in a facility that held around 5,000 people total.

There was no natural lighting in the facility and the detainees only had limited recreation time, Ramsingh said. He described recreation area as “a dog kennel with very low barbed wire that people could easily get injured on.” 

The pods and facility, Ramsingh said, are filthy with bugs throughout. He also said many people’s feet became infected due to uncleanliness and showering without shower shoes.  

The facility had six showers, five toilets and was constantly running out of supplies like toothpaste, shampoo and deodorant, Ramsingh said. 

Ramsingh also talked about how he received horrible medical care at the facility, saying he was “sick for weeks” and did not receive any medication or treatment.  

Ramsingh lived in the facility for just over four months, was moved to New Mexico and is now in the Netherlands.