BY ANGELA KOCHERGA AND DIANNE SOLIS<\/p>\n
This article was co-published with Puente News Collaborative, a bilingual nonprofit newsroom dedicated to high-quality coverage from the U.S.-Mexico border, and KTEP Public Radio.<\/p>\n
EL PASO – Once a flashpoint in the heated debate over high immigration flows, this city is now a hub for detentions and deportations \u2013 with more mega-facilities in the works as the Trump administration tries to ramp up massive deportations.<\/p>\n
This week, the El Paso County Medical Examiner ruled the Jan. 3 death of Geraldo Lunas Campos, 55, a Cuban immigrant at a tent camp, was a homicide, an explosive finding bound to intensify calls for a shutdown at what’s become the nation’s largest immigration detention facility.<\/p>\n
In total, in just the last six weeks, three men have died at the $1.2 billion privately operated Camp East Montana located at Fort Bliss army base. The average daily population at the end of November was nearly 2,800 people and is likely higher now. The Department of Homeland Security, or DHS, did not respond to a request for the current number of people detained at the camp. Immigrants picked up by the DHS agency, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, across the country are held at the tent facility pending deportation.<\/p>\n
The medical examiner\u2019s findings throw a broader light on issues of oversight and return a harsh focus to El Paso.<\/p>\n
“Witnesses claim staff killed the detainee; DHS must preserve all evidence – including halting their effort to deport the witnesses,\u201d said U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso. “I reiterate my call for Camp East Montana to be shut down and for the contract with the corporation running it to be terminated.”<\/p>\n
The federal government has consistently denied abuse allegations and says ICE is committed to ensuring all those in custody reside in a \u201csafe, secure and humane environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Testing Ground<\/p>\n
El Paso has long served as a testing ground for everything from facial recognition biometrics to drones to license plate readers – tactics now seen throughout the country, from Los Angeles to Chicago to Minneapolis. The El Paso region, not new to the U.S. long history of deportations, was also the location of other controversial tent camps, including a notorious site that held minors. In 2018 and 2019, a migrant camp in Tornillo for children swelled to more than 2,500.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Camp-East-Montana.png\")
A sign at the entrance to the immigration detention center named Camp East Montana warns access to the facility at Fort Bliss is restricted. The tent facility in El Paso is the largest in the country and opened in August and has a capacity of up to 5000 people. (August 18, 2025) (Courtesy: Angela Kochega)<\/p>\n
But the political theater, as locals refer to the whims of Washington, is back. Until recently, immigrant raids were rare. In recent days, however, several videos on social media platforms show ICE and U.S. Border Patrol agents picking up workers in construction sites, putting a city that\u2019s more than 80 percent Hispanic, on edge.<\/p>\n
Controlled explosions near Mount Cristo Rey, with its towering and iconic sculpture of Jesus Christ on the cross, have gone off as the Trump administration prepares the foundation for a new 1.3-mile wall. Despite the construction, crossings of migrants have dropped significantly.<\/p>\n
Now a new detention center is planned in El Paso County, with funds from Trump\u2019s tax and spending package that includes an estimated $45 billion for ICE detention centers and tens of billions more for additional law enforcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we are seeing with the system right now is truly unprecedented,\u201d said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a lawyer and senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, at a recent webinar on detentions. \u201cIt’s expanding more quickly. There is no sense of basic humanity of the people going through the system, and the basic underlying rules of due process are being tossed out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reichlin-Melnick called the El Paso County medical examiner\u2019s finding probably the first-ever homicide in ICE detention.<\/p>\n
Recent Deaths<\/p>\n
Human rights organizations and lawyers in contact with people at the El Paso tent facility have been sounding the alarm for months and documented cases of medical neglect, unsanitary conditions, lack of food and abuse at the facility.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe medical examiners report that Geraldo\u2019s death was a homicide completely dispels the government\u2019s claim that this was a suicide,\u201d said Charlotte Weiss, staff attorney based in El Paso with the Texas Civil Rights Project. Weiss regularly visits people detained at Camp East Montana and says she and other partners have documented cases of \u201cexcessive use of force.\u201d<\/p>\n
El Paso Mayor Renard Johnson called for an \u201cindependent investigation\u201d into the death of Lunas Campos.<\/p>\n
DHS officials have said Lunas Campos was attempting to take his life and grew violent with security staff. \u201cThe security staff immediately intervened to save his life,\u201d they said in a statement.<\/p>\n
The federal government is trying to deport two detainees quoted in news reports saying they witnessed Lunas Campos in an altercation with staff when he died. Lawyers for the men, a Salvadoran and a Cuban, are trying to extend an injunction to keep them in this country until they can give depositions.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Protesters.png\")
A woman chants outside the entrance to Fort Bliss where people gathered after learning the army post was the\u00a0site of the largest detention center in the country. Camp East Montana is on military property but operated by a private contractor. (August 17,2025) (Courtesy: Angela Kochega)<\/p>\n
In another death at the El Paso tent camp on Jan. 14, ICE officials reported Victor Manuel Diaz of Nicaragua, died by \u201cpresumed suicide.\u201d The official cause of his death remains under investigation, ICE said. The man had been detained in Minneapolis, where widespread protests have been held since Renee Good, a U.S. citizen, was fatally shot by an ICE agent on Jan. 7.<\/p>\n
A third man, Francisco Gaspar Andres from Guatemala, died in December at an El Paso hospital where he was transported for a serious medical condition.<\/p>\n
ICE officials were quick to cite the criminal record of Lunas Campos. Lunas Campos had been convicted of driving while intoxicated, criminal possession of a weapon, petit larceny, and other crimes, ICE said.<\/p>\n
Rapid Expansion<\/p>\n
Detentions have reached historic highs of 70,000 at about 200 U.S. facilities, stretching from the state of Washington to California, Texas to Georgia, according to ICE data.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere will be more deaths, there will be more harm,\u201d said Marisa Lim\u00f3n Garza, executive director of El Paso-based Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center. \u201cThis is not an anomaly. Unless ICE changes course, there\u2019s more oversight, there\u2019s more accountability and there\u2019s more protection of people in detention.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Department of Homeland Security confirmed plans to expand detention space across the country and objected to the use of the word \u201cwarehouses\u201d as a descriptor. \u201cThese will not be warehouses \u2014 they will be very well-structured detention facilities meeting our regular detention standards,\u201d a DHS spokesperson said in an emailed statement. \u201cIt should not come as news that ICE will be making arrests in states across the U.S. and is actively working to expand detention space.\u201d<\/p>\n
An ICE spokesman also said they wouldn\u2019t confirm specific locations.<\/p>\n
In Dallas County, another possible detention facility off a highway could hold nearly 10,000. The prospect has galvanized Texans there against it, too.<\/p>\n
The Washington Post reported details in December about a draft solicitation for renovating industrial warehouses to hold up to 80,000 persons. One of them is believed to be in Hutchins, a suburb of about 8,000 persons, according to Census Bureau estimates.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are horrified by the fact this is going to be in our backyard,\u201d said Rev. Eric Folkerth, a Methodist minister who leads an interfaith group defending immigrants and holding vigils at an orange-brick ICE field office in Dallas. \u201cWe are planning resistance from our churches and have spoken to other county officials who are equally disturbed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Folkerth said he believes the massive ICE detention center could open based on conversations his clergy group has had with government and private officials.<\/p>\n
The site sits sandwiched by a noisy highway and a Federal Express distribution hub and budget hotels. The empty blue and white warehouse<\/p>\n
looks like the length of a large mall and advertises its size at 1 mm square feet.\u2019<\/p>\n
Protests Grow<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, there have been multiple protests outside the detention camp in Fort Bliss since it opened in August.<\/p>\n
At a vigil recently for the men who died in custody, Jeannie Norris said it was hard to see El Paso, again, in a harsh spotlight.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am so shocked what\u2019s happening in our country,\u201d said Norris, \u201c…and it\u2019s close to home and you have a big detention center right in your hometown which is an international city, which has always loved immigrants before, and we treat them so badly, it\u2019s heartbreaking.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rebecca Krasne, another El Paso resident, added, \u201cWe have to voice our condemnation of these acts and our total distrust of our government, and come together and be strong and powerful in our voice to try to do what we can to stop this madness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Angela Kocherga is a frequent Puente contributor, and is news director and a correspondent for public radio station KTEP in El Paso. She contributes stories to the Texas Newsroom and NPR. She also co-hosts Texas Standard, a weekday news program airing statewide.@AngelaKBorder<\/p>\n
Dianne Solis is a freelance journalist. She has worked as a staff writer for The Dallas Morning News and The Wall Street Journal. Her work has aired on KERA public radio and the Texas Standard and appeared in the Guardian and El Pais. @disolis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BY ANGELA KOCHERGA AND DIANNE SOLIS This article was co-published with Puente News Collaborative, a bilingual nonprofit newsroom…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139],"class_list":{"0":"post-135393","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-el-paso","8":"tag-el-paso","9":"tag-el-paso-headlines","10":"tag-el-paso-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}