Fort Bliss, a sprawling military base that straddles El Paso, Texas, and parts of Doña Ana and Otero counties in New Mexico, is once again at the center of a heated national debate on immigration enforcement. On August 19, 2025, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) issued a stark warning: the Trump administration is converting Fort Bliss into one of the country’s largest immigration detention sites, with the capacity to hold up to 5,000 people. This transformation, the ACLU contends, marks an escalation in President Trump’s agenda to detain and deport millions of immigrants from communities nationwide, a move the organization calls both dystopian and cruel, according to their press release cited by the Davis Vanguard.
The facility, officially named the East Montana Detention Facility, began housing detainees on August 1, 2025. It’s a $1.24 billion, soft-sided Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility built on Fort Bliss land in Far East El Paso. As of mid-August, it held about 1,000 men, but its capacity is expected to rapidly expand to 5,000, including women, making it the largest federal detention center for civil detainees in the United States, as reported by El Paso Matters.
The detention camp is structured as a tent facility, a design that has drawn particular scrutiny. The ACLU warns that such a setup leaves detainees vulnerable to extreme heat and other harsh conditions—a concern that has been echoed by local officials and advocates. Media reports indicate that the Trump administration is prepared to spend approximately $1.26 billion to build and operate the camp, a massive outlay that comes atop $170 billion in congressional funding to accelerate deportations and expand detention capacity nationwide. The funding for the East Montana facility itself is drawn from the Department of Defense budget, enabled by the so-called Big Beautiful Bill, which provided $45 billion in supplemental funding to double migrant detention capacity to 100,000 beds.
U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, became the first member of Congress to tour the new facility, spending over two hours inside the tent structure. "The facility is really, really big and it will continue to grow," Escobar said after her visit. "It is really massive. It is a huge facility that takes a lot of power – a lot of power – to run. And it takes a lot of people." She described the site as a reinforced tent with hard floors and walls that don’t reach the ceiling, providing some privacy but also raising questions about living conditions. Cameras monitor nearly every corner, and the facility boasts a "highly sophisticated" medical center, as well as large, clean kitchens and open spaces. Still, Escobar expressed worries about the enormous energy and water resources required to keep the facility running, especially since it currently relies on generators.
Escobar also raised concerns about staffing. Most of the personnel are employed by private contractors rather than federal ICE staff, a trend she finds troubling. "I am very concerned that there are not enough ICE personnel who have been trained by the federal government and have done this for a living for their whole career," she said. "I’m concerned that there are not as many federal personnel to provide oversight as we should have." She pointed out that private facilities too often operate with a profit motive, which can lead to lapses in standards and oversight. Acquisition Logistics LLC, a Virginia-based logistics and supply chain company, was awarded nearly $232 million upfront to begin work at the site, with a total contract value of $1.24 billion and an estimated completion date of September 2027, according to the Department of Defense.
Historically, Fort Bliss has been associated with the confinement of German, Italian, and Japanese immigrants during World War II. More recently, it was used between 2016 and again from 2021 to 2023 to hold unaccompanied migrant children, many of whom suffered extreme abuse, according to the ACLU. The organization argues that the current expansion at Fort Bliss is a continuation of a "shameful detention legacy." As Sarah Mehta, deputy director of government affairs for the ACLU, put it: "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. Thousands of people, including our neighbors and loved ones, will be torn from their communities while this administration enlists the military to rubberstamp its abusive agenda." Mehta called on Congress to intervene: "Members of Congress must stop the use of the military — including its bases — for the Trump administration’s reckless and wasteful deportation drive."
The East Montana Detention Facility is just one part of an aggressive nationwide expansion of immigration enforcement and detention. The Trump administration’s goal is to deport 1 million people a year, and at least three other large detention centers have opened in recent months, including sites in Florida and Indiana. About 10 other military installations are being considered for future ICE detention facilities, with Fort Bliss serving as a model for the expansion. The selection of Fort Bliss followed a visit earlier this year by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, according to reporting by the New York Times.
On the ground, the impact of these policies is already being felt. Nearly 59,400 people were in ICE detention as of August 10, 2025, with 70% having no criminal convictions, according to data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. In El Paso, the average daily number of detainees at the Montana Facility was just over 800 in early August, with another 180 at a separate Northeast facility. Both are expected to remain operational alongside the new East Montana site.
Supporters of the expanded detention policy argue that such facilities are essential for addressing what they describe as an "unmitigated disaster" at the border. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who visited the Fort Bliss site but did not enter the facility, stated during an August 11 news conference that all detention centers meet state or federal standards, providing medical care, three meals a day, air conditioning, and a place to sleep. "These are humane, safe facilities and in many instances, a vast improvement over what many of these folks are used to," Cornyn said, dubbing the new center the "lone star lockup." He insisted that the facilities are necessary to remove "illegal aliens who have no legal right to be here."
Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, emphasized that 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 critics remain unconvinced. Escobar, for one, questioned the opportunity costs of such massive spending. "When you think about the amount of money that is being funneled into this facility … think about how much good that money would do if it were spent on the community, if it were spent on access to child care for El Paso kids, if it were spent on universal pre-K for El Paso kids, if it were spent on health care for El Pasoans," she said.
As Fort Bliss becomes the model for a new era of mass detention, the debate over the use of military resources, private contractors, and the treatment of immigrants in the United States is likely to intensify. For many in El Paso and beyond, the question remains: Is this the best path forward for America’s immigration system, or a costly and divisive detour?
