The Trump administration’s latest foray into immigration enforcement has taken a dramatic turn in El Paso, Texas, where a sprawling new detention camp—officially named Camp East Montana and colloquially dubbed the “Lone Star Lockup”—has opened its doors at the Fort Bliss military base. The facility, which began detaining migrants as early as August 1, 2025, now holds nearly 1,000 individuals, with plans to expand capacity to 5,000 beds in the coming weeks and months. According to Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson, "Upon completion, this will be the largest federal detention center in history for this critical mission—the deportation of illegal aliens."
Fort Bliss, a massive military installation larger than the state of Rhode Island and home to about 70,000 soldiers and their families, has suddenly become the epicenter of a heated national debate. The camp’s opening on Sunday, August 17, 2025, coincided with a heatwave—temperatures soared into the mid-90s and even hit 105 degrees Fahrenheit earlier in the month—raising immediate concerns about the conditions inside the tent-covered facility. The site currently houses only men, but officials have indicated that women and potentially women with children could be detained there in the future.
Representative Veronica Escobar, a Democrat representing the El Paso area, visited the site on Monday, August 18, 2025, for a nearly two-and-a-half-hour tour. She reported seeing elderly men among the detainees but was not permitted to speak directly with them. Escobar voiced her unease at a press conference, emphasizing that the “massive” facility appeared understaffed and ill-equipped to humanely house such a large number of people. She is pushing for greater transparency, urging federal officials to allow local leaders, faith groups, and the media to conduct oversight visits. "There are folks inside the facility who have recently been apprehended, maybe even here at the border, or apprehended as far away as Miami or as far away as LA in enforcement operations that ICE is conducting inside the U.S.," Escobar said, challenging the narrative that only hardened criminals are being detained.
Not everyone agrees with Escobar’s assessment. Texas Senator John Cornyn, a Republican who toured the facility in mid-August (though he admitted, “We saw it from a distance”), painted a different picture. According to Cornyn, “no families and no children” are being held at the camp—just single adults. He asserted, "We're not talking about gardeners, housekeepers or people like that. We're talking about as many as … 291,000 individuals who are called criminal aliens, who are people either with criminal charges pending or criminal convictions, and who have exhausted all of their legal remedies. In other words, there's no due process issue involved here." Cornyn further reassured the public, "These are humane, safe facilities, and in many instances, a vast improvement over what many of these folks are used to."
Yet, public data complicates this narrative. According to figures reported by the Marshall Project, only about 12% of those deported between January and May 2025 were convicted of violent or potentially violent crimes. The majority had no criminal conviction at all, casting doubt on the blanket characterization of detainees as dangerous criminals. This discrepancy has fueled criticism from Democrats and civil rights groups, who argue that the Trump administration’s rhetoric does not align with the facts.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has been among the most vocal critics, drawing a controversial parallel between the new detention camp and the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. In a joint statement released by regional affiliates, the ACLU called the development “another shameful chapter” in Fort Bliss’s history and labeled the administration’s mass-deportation agenda “dystopian.” Sarah Mehta, a top official in the ACLU’s Equality Division, added, "President Trump’s use of Fort Bliss for the nation’s largest immigrant detention site is cruel and a reminder of a shameful detention legacy." The ACLU urged Congress to halt what it described as the Department of Homeland Security’s “abusive agenda.”
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was quick to hit back. Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin dismissed the ACLU’s comparison as “deranged and lazy,” telling Fox News Digital, "Comparisons of illegal alien detention centers to internment camps used during World War II are deranged and lazy. The ACLU’s smears against our brave ICE law enforcement are no doubt contributing to the more than 1,000% increase in assaults against them." McLaughlin insisted that "ICE is targeting the worst of the worst—including murderers, MS-13 gang members, pedophiles, and rapists. 70% of ICE arrests are of criminal illegal aliens who have been convicted or have pending charges in the U.S."
The debate is further complicated by the historical legacy of Fort Bliss itself. The base was used to detain small numbers of Japanese Americans, Germans, and Italians during World War II—about 70 first-generation Japanese Americans, or "Issei," were among those held. The ACLU has pointed out that Fort Bliss also housed Mexican refugees fleeing war in the early 20th century and served as the site where migrant children were separated from their parents during both the Trump and Biden administrations. A 2022 report from the Department of Health and Human Services’ inspector general found that conditions at Fort Bliss “caused children to experience distress, anxiety, and in some cases, panic attacks,” with documented instances of self-harm.
The opening of Camp East Montana comes as part of a broader Trump administration initiative to ramp up deportations. The so-called “big, beautiful bill” signed into law in July 2025 allocated $45 billion for immigrant detention facilities and over $170 billion for immigration and border enforcement overall. Bloomberg and Military.com report that the Fort Bliss facility alone will cost at least $1.26 billion to construct. The camp is already under investigation by an independent government watchdog over how contracts were awarded to private companies. Tragedy has also struck: Hector Gonzalez, a 38-year-old subcontractor worker, died in a workplace accident in July 2025, according to the Disaster Management Group. The Army is currently investigating the circumstances of his death.
Local officials have not minced words in their criticism. El Paso County Commissioner David Stout described the facility as a “concentration camp for migrants” and warned, “I think we are going down the road to becoming a fascist country. I think it’s a very slippery slope, and the actions that are taking place at this point in time are comparable to [Nazi Germany].” Stout, a former television reporter, expressed deep doubts about the treatment of detainees and the lack of transparency surrounding the camp’s operations.
Meanwhile, Republicans and the Trump administration continue to frame the new facility as a necessary tool in the fight against illegal immigration. They argue that the vast majority of detainees are dangerous criminals, though public data suggests otherwise. As the debate rages on, the story of Fort Bliss’s Camp East Montana stands as a stark reminder of the ongoing national struggle over immigration policy, human rights, and the use of military resources for domestic law enforcement.
For now, the tents at Fort Bliss cast long shadows in the Texas sun, sheltering thousands whose fates remain uncertain—at the center of a controversy that shows no sign of cooling down.
