Overview
- Eight organizations led by the ACLU submitted a 19-page letter with 16 sworn declarations after months of interviews with more than 45 detainees at Camp East Montana.
- Statements describe beatings, sexual assaults, medical neglect, hunger, and blocked access to counsel, including accounts of a teen allegedly beaten unconscious and others reporting testicular crushing by guards.
- Detainees allege they were shackled, bused to the Santa Teresa border area, and pressured by masked agents to cross into Mexico under threats of imprisonment or removal to distant third countries.
- DHS publicly rejected the allegations as false and said detainees receive proper meals, medical care, showers, and access to lawyers, while defending third-country removal agreements as lawful.
- The facility, opened in August on the Fort Bliss base, holds more than 2,700 people; prior reporting cited a leaked ICE inspection that found over 60 standards violations early on, and oversight offices were copied on the new complaint.