On Sunday, August 17, 2025, a new era in U.S. immigration enforcement quietly began in the vast desert expanse of West Texas. The federal government officially opened the doors to a sprawling Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility at Fort Bliss, an Army base in El Paso, marking the launch of what officials are calling the largest migrant detention center in American history. The move comes amid an aggressive push by the Trump administration to ramp up deportations and expand the nation’s detention infrastructure to unprecedented levels.
The new facility, nicknamed “Lone Star Lockup,” starts with an initial capacity of about 1,000 beds, but federal officials say that number could balloon to 5,000 by 2027. According to The Texas Tribune, the U.S. Department of Defense has earmarked $1.26 billion for the project, with Virginia-based Acquisition Logistics LLC receiving nearly $232 million up front to build and operate the tent-based camp. The contract, one of the largest in the company’s history, has drawn scrutiny since Acquisition Logistics has little apparent experience running detention centers.
Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican who toured the site before its opening, described the center’s purpose in stark terms: “These are people under final orders of deportation. They have no legal remedy. They have no legal right to be here.” The facility will only accept single men and women—no families or children—and will house migrants who have exhausted all legal appeals. ICE officials say most detainees are expected to remain at the site for only a few weeks before being deported to their home countries or elsewhere.
Supporters of the project, like Republican Congressman Tony Gonzales, point to the military’s logistical prowess and the need to relieve overcrowding at other detention centers. “Fort Bliss is an amazing military facility,” Gonzales told NewsNation. “Everything thrown their way, they’ve handled. We should be supporting this, not attacking it.” The center is equipped with legal access, medical treatment areas, and recreational spaces, which ICE insists makes it comparable to a “traditional” detention facility. Tricia McLaughlin, Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, stated, “The Fort Bliss facility will offer everything a traditional ICE detention facility offers, including access to legal representation and a law library, access to visitation, recreational space, medical treatment space and nutritionally balanced meals. It also provides necessary accommodations for disabilities, diet, and religious beliefs.”
Yet the project has sparked fierce opposition and concern from local officials, immigrant rights advocates, and watchdog groups. The El Paso County Commissioners Court unanimously approved a resolution opposing the facility, demanding more transparency and formal briefings from federal agencies. Commissioner David Stout, for one, stressed the importance of oversight and promised to push for access for local leaders and community advocates. U.S. Representative Veronica Escobar, a Democrat from El Paso, was blunt in her criticism: “That money will mostly go to a private contractor who will enrich himself. Can you imagine what $1 billion in El Paso could do? How much health care coverage it could provide? How many more law enforcement agencies it could help fund?”
National organizations have also weighed in. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas called the site’s opening “dangerous and cruel” and vowed to monitor conditions at Camp East Montana, the official name for the Fort Bliss facility. Their concerns echo longstanding criticisms of tent-based detention in the harsh West Texas climate, where daytime temperatures can soar well above 100 degrees. “Immigrant advocates have flagged that detention at military bases could make it extremely difficult for oversight to happen, for access to legal representation to happen, and there are even concerns about basic services like medical needs and food and water,” explained Kathleen Bush-Joseph, a lawyer and policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, as reported by The Texas Tribune.
These worries aren’t unfounded. Human Rights Watch has documented “abusive practices” at other ICE detention centers, including prolonged shackling on buses without food or water, and detainees being forced to sleep on cold concrete floors under relentless fluorescent lighting. Meanwhile, Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz,” another large-scale migrant detention facility, is currently facing a civil rights lawsuit over alleged deplorable conditions—claims that state officials deny. Similar allegations have already surfaced regarding the new Fort Bliss site, with critics mentioning potential flooding, unsanitary conditions, and even deaths—though officials categorically deny any fatalities or reports of worms in food or sewage flooding, insisting the facility meets federal standards.
The Fort Bliss project is just one piece of a much broader federal strategy. The Trump administration has set an ambitious goal: arrest more than one million immigrants annually, with a daily target of 3,000 arrests. According to The Texas Tribune, the administration has already raised detention levels to a record high, with nearly 60,000 people currently held in ICE facilities nationwide. The recent Republican policy package, dubbed the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” allocated $45 billion to expand detention capacity, aiming to maintain an average daily population of 100,000 undocumented migrants and add 80,000 new ICE beds.
To meet these targets, the administration is leaning heavily on Republican-led states for support. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has announced two new detention sites, including the so-called “Deportation Depot,” a converted state prison expected to house up to 2,000 detainees and staffed in part by the Florida National Guard. “The reason for this is not to just house people indefinitely. We want to process, stage, and then return illegal aliens to their home country,” DeSantis said, as quoted by NewsNation.
Meanwhile, the federal government is in the midst of a massive recruiting campaign to hire 10,000 additional ICE officers. The agency is waiving age limits, offering signing bonuses of up to $50,000, and dangling student loan forgiveness to attract applicants. Applications have surged, but some critics worry that the rush to fill positions could lead to lower hiring standards and oversight challenges.
As the Fort Bliss facility begins operations, the debate over its necessity, cost, and humanitarian impact is far from settled. Supporters see it as a crucial tool for enforcing immigration law and relieving pressure on an overburdened system. Opponents argue it’s a costly, potentially inhumane response that diverts resources from local needs and raises serious questions about transparency, accountability, and civil rights. With the facility set to expand over the next two years, the spotlight on Fort Bliss—and the broader U.S. immigration detention apparatus—is only likely to intensify.
For now, the tents of “Lone Star Lockup” stand as a stark symbol of the nation’s shifting approach to immigration enforcement, drawing both praise and condemnation from across the political spectrum. As the story unfolds, El Paso finds itself at the epicenter of a national reckoning over how America chooses to secure its borders—and at what cost.
