EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — Detainees and family members of detainees at Camp East Montana are claiming maltreatment and unlivable conditions at the facility.
U.S. Representative Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, told media outlets she conducted an oversight visit shortly after the two reported disturbances on Sept. 1 and Sept. 7 by the Department of Homeland Security.
Escobar, Republican candidate Bauman respond to Camp East Montana ‘riots’
Escobar said during her visit at Camp East Montana, she was told the detainees who incited the ‘riots’ were Venezuelans with a criminal record.
“They’re a tough– these are their words– they are a tough population,” Escobar said.
Lorena Beatriz Vargas Hernandez — a Venezuelan attorney and human rights activist– advocated for Venezuelan detainees, some of whom are her clients at the facility. She said the majority of them do not have a criminal record and should not be held at the detention center.
“The problem with the United States is that they categorized all Venezuelans as members of the Tren de Aragua, and that can’t be,” Vargas said. “These are working people, people who entered legally through official inspection and they are being detained illegally.”
Vargas said she received numerous reports of maltreatment of detainees at the facility and claimed there can be 80 people crammed in one space at a time and unhygienic conditions.
“There are so many violations of human rights,” Vargas said. “They are being beaten up. They alleged that they’re being tortured at this detention center because they want to be deported to Venezuela fast, and those flights are not leaving.”
Escobar said she was told the reason deportation flights were being delayed for Venezuelans was due to flight difficulties as a result of an earthquake in the country this summer.
Vargas shared videos with KTSM 9 News of detainees sharing their stories and family members calling for help.
“We are starving; they are not giving us medical attention,” said one man who claims he had been at the facility for eight months. “There are fourteen injured people over there, dead bodies there. Please have them help us from the outside.”
In one video, a mother claimed her son, who has asthma, was beaten at the detention center and called for the public’s help to get her son back to Venezuela.
“My son has purple nails. He has one and a half months in that place,” she said. “He’s already fainted, he’s bled from his mouth, [and] from his nose.”
KTSM reached out to DHS and ICE to request camera footage of the two disturbances, along with a response to allegations of guard violence, inhuman treatment of detainees, and information on what oversight actions — if any — are being taken regarding their private contractor, Amentum Services.
Neither agency has responded directly to the inquiries.
Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News.