{"id":181484,"date":"2026-02-26T16:35:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T16:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/181484\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T16:35:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T16:35:21","slug":"rep-veronica-escobar-two-dozen-democrats-call-on-ice-to-close-troubled-el-paso-detention-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/181484\/","title":{"rendered":"Rep. Veronica Escobar, two dozen Democrats call on ICE to close troubled El Paso detention camp"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than two dozen congressional Democrats, led by U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar<\/a> of El Paso, called on the Trump administration to shutter its troubled Camp East Montana immigrant detention center at Fort Bliss, according to a letter sent Thursday to Department of Homeland Security leaders.<\/p>\n

In a span of six weeks starting in mid-December, three people died at the hastily constructed camp at El Paso\u2019s U.S. Army base. One was ruled a homicide<\/a> involving staff, which former Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said<\/a> has not occurred in at least 15 years. <\/p>\n

ICE initially claimed<\/a> that 55-year-old Geraldo Lunas Campos, a father of three who had lived in the U.S. for nearly two decades, died of \u201cmedical distress\u201d before later alleging<\/a> a suicide attempt. After the medical examiner called it a homicide, ICE last week quietly updated<\/a> the cause of death, finding it the result of \u201cspontaneous use of force\u201d<\/a> to prevent the Cuban \u201cfrom harming himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to mounting complaints including rotten and insufficient food, impotable drinking water, and sewage flooding the facility holding more than 3,000 men and women, Escobar and other Democrats noted Thursday that among their \u201cbiggest concerns\u201d is the \u201cinadequate\u201d medical care. <\/p>\n

The camp\u2019s first death \u2014 48-year-old Francisco Gaspar-Andres \u2014 \u201cappears to partially be the result of poor medical care by staff,\u201d the lawmakers wrote. ICE said<\/a> the Guatemalan man, a father of five, died on Dec. 3 of liver and kidney failure after being hospitalized for more than two weeks following detention. His autopsy, obtained by The Texas Tribune, confirmed that he died of organ failure. <\/p>\n

ICE officials wrote<\/a> that Gaspar-Andres, who was arrested in Florida on Labor Day last year as part of a \u201cpre-planned enforcement operation,\u201d struggled with a litany of health care issues, including liver problems. While detained, he repeatedly received medical care for symptoms including bleeding gums, body aches, fever, jaundice and hypertension, and had \u201cconstant, high-quality care,\u201d ICE officials said.<\/p>\n

But lawmakers argued that despite seeking medical attention from facility staff for \u201cincreasingly serious symptoms,\u201d Gaspar-Andres was only hospitalized \u201conce his condition had severely deteriorated.\u201d<\/p>\n

His family also believes poor treatment and the El Paso camp\u2019s lack of medical care exacerbated his condition, leading to his death. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy father told me he was suffering greatly there in that jail, from lack of food, lack of medical attention and the conditions of the place,\u201d his daughter said to The Texas Tribune. <\/p>\n

His family told<\/a> The El Paso Times that he was relatively healthy despite his liver problems, but declined quickly under detention. He was hospitalized two months after ICE arrested him.<\/p>\n

His medical needs were \u201calways ignored,\u201d his daughter said. \u201cMy father was taken to the hospital when he was already dying, but it was too late.\u201d<\/p>\n

In their letter, Democrats said the administration should close the tent camp, which is currently the largest ICE facility in the country. Constructed in a record two months<\/a> after a $1.2 billion contract was granted to a Virginia-based company with no listed related experience<\/a>, it is viewed as a model<\/a> for more than two dozen ICE facilities the government plans to convert into detention centers across the country, including several in Texas. <\/p>\n

The problems at Camp East Montana should not only serve as a warning for the administration\u2019s planned ICE expansion, Escobar said, but force the site\u2019s immediate closure.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the safety of everyone at the facility, for an end to abuses to detainees, and for fiscal responsibility to the American people,\u201d she and other lawmakers wrote, \u201cthe site cannot continue to operate.\u201d <\/p>\n

More than 45 people detained at Camp East Montana have alleged<\/a> abuse and serious injuries to attorneys, according to a letter<\/a> the American Civil Liberties Union and other advocacy groups sent to DHS and ICE supervisors in December. Those allegations included a teen hospitalized after he accused staff of slamming him to the ground and beating him. The detention staffers blocked the security cameras, he said, and \u201cgrabbed my testicles and firmly crushed them.\u201d <\/p>\n

Since then, conditions have further deteriorated, said Savannah Kumar, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU of Texas, who is visiting the El Paso camp this week. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe situation was already at a breaking point,\u201d Kumar said. \u201cIt continues to be a very dire situation for people who are kept there and who are having to live in a detention center where multiple deaths have already occurred. It creates an environment where they are scared for their own lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Disclosure: ACLU Texas and El Paso Times have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune\u2019s journalism. Find a complete\u00a0list of them here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than two dozen congressional Democrats, led by U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar of El Paso, called on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181485,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[2668,2875,138,140,139,1724,287,293,2569],"class_list":{"0":"post-181484","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-el-paso","8":"tag-border-security","9":"tag-demographics","10":"tag-el-paso","11":"tag-el-paso-headlines","12":"tag-el-paso-news","13":"tag-immigration","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-texas-legislature","16":"tag-veronica-escobar"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181484","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=181484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}