EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — The Border Network for Human Rights and several partner organizations gathered Saturday, April 25 to protest plans for an immigration detention warehouse facility that would be built in Socorro.

They also gathered to protest and draw attention to existing detention facilities, like Camp East Montana which operates on Fort Bliss property.

Photos by Edith Montero/KTSM

The groups met in Ysleta for a caravan and then gathered at Cougar Park in Socorro.

“We are denouncing that people are actually making a profit out of immigration detention, and there is an expansion of immigration facilities and detention centers,” said Fernando Garcia, executive director for the Border Network For Human Rights (BNHR).

“This is part of the so-called massive deportation strategy — illegally that the government is doing throughout the country,” Garcia said.

Garcia said they choose Socorro as the place to have their protest and “action” to provide support for the community and oppose the expansion of detention centers into Socorro.

“There has been a discussion about the potential opening of a detention center (here in Socorro),” Garcia said. “We are here to oppose it and not only oppose it but close the ones that have actually opened like at Camp East Montana.”

As we have previously reported, there have been at least three immigrant deaths at Camp East Montana.

“People have actually died because of the conditions at those detention centers (at Fort Bliss and elsewhere in the country),” Garcia said.

Joining BNHR in the protest were Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center and the ACLU.

“It is really powerful to have residents of the City of Socorro understanding the impact that this can have,” said Marisa Limon Garza, the executive director for Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center.

“Oftentimes, these kinds of operations happen behind closed doors and then you can’t really fight back until it’s already gone live,” she added. “And so this has been an inspiring moment where residents of the City (of Socorro), the City Council and the mayor have really stepped up and modeled what it looks like to be resisting in a way that centers the values of their residents.”

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