ICE Reportedly Sexually Torturing Migrants at a Concentration Camp used in WW2

In December, human rights groups, led by the ACLU, sent a letter to Immigration and Customs Enforcement requesting that immigration detention be stopped immediately at the massive military base detention center at Fort Bliss, Texas.

This letter is the result of interviews with over 45 people currently being held at the facility and also includes 16 sworn statements. This is no case of mismanagement or misconduct; it is a case of systemic abuse.

Fort Bliss VIA The Guardian

Geraldo Lunas Campos was reportedly held for months at Camp East Montana at Fort Bliss before dying in ICE custody. He died from a homicide after allegations that the officer choked him during an altercation. Another detainee, a teenager who goes by the pseudonym of Samuel, said that he was beaten so badly by officers that he had to be hospitalized. He said that the officers put their fingers in his ears to inflict permanent hearing loss and crushed his testicles as a form of punishment.

Fort Bliss started detaining immigrants only three months ago, and it was an active construction site at the time. Today, it is the largest immigration detention center in the country, with nearly 3,000 people detained in tent cities in the blistering Texas heat. Fort Bliss sits on the site of a former Japanese internment camp and marks a new era of immigration policy under the Trump administration: mass detention at military bases, thanks to a $1.2 billion federal infusion.

Conditions at the camp are nightmarish.

Each pod is designed to hold 60 to 70 people, but meals are typically enough for only 50. Detainees have reported rotten or frozen food, widespread illness, vomiting, diarrhea, and dramatic weight loss. Soap, clean clothes, and functional showers are a distant memory. People go days without access to these basic necessities. Tents are flooded, and bathrooms are filled with a toxic mixture of water, urine, and feces.

The medical neglect is widespread… those suffering from serious medical conditions report having to wait days or weeks for treatment, which may or may not be provided. A woman with diabetes reported that insulin was given irregularly, which caused extreme highs and lows. Others did not receive their blood pressure medication for weeks. Many reported being ignored until they passed out. One man from Guatemala, Francisco Gaspar Andres, died in December after liver and kidney failure due to a lack of adequate medical treatment.

Another widespread issue is the violence inflicted by the officers. Many of the detainees report being beaten, slammed, stomped on, or sexually assaulted, including having their testicles crushed, while in custody or after refusing to be deported to a country where they believed their lives were in danger.

In its first 50 days, Fort Bliss had already racked up over 60 instances of non-compliance with federal detention standards. But it is impossible to monitor this effectively. ICE has already been denying Congress access, requiring seven days’ notice, and even preventing Congress from visiting altogether. ICE went so far as to furlough its congressional relations team during the recent government shutdown, creating a kind of information black hole around its detention centers.

Fort Bliss is not a problem; it is a warning.

The administration is already planning to roll this model out nationwide. There have already been reports of new detention centers being planned for Fort Dix in New Jersey and a Coast Guard base in New York. If a brand-new billion-dollar facility is producing this kind of abuse in its first three months of existence, the implications of further expansion are chilling.

What is happening at Fort Bliss is a lesson in the dangers of the rapid expansion of detention centers without safeguards, transparency, and accountability. If something is not done, Fort Bliss will not be a failure; it will be a blueprint.

ICE detention at Fort Bliss must be halted immediately, and the use of military bases for immigration detention must end before this crisis spreads even further.