{"id":218626,"date":"2025-12-08T16:14:57","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T21:14:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/?p=218626"},"modified":"2025-12-09T13:30:38","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T18:30:38","slug":"detained-immigrants-detail-physical-abuse-and-inhumane-conditions-at-largest-immigration-detention-center-in-the-u-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/immigrants-rights\/detained-immigrants-detail-physical-abuse-and-inhumane-conditions-at-largest-immigration-detention-center-in-the-u-s","title":{"rendered":"Detained Immigrants Detail Physical Abuse and Inhumane Conditions at Largest Immigration Detention Center in the U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"metadata":[1764,1763,1783,1750,2024,1751,1755,1769,2026,1768],"class_list":["post-218626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","metadata-advocacy-news","metadata-context","metadata-general-commentary","metadata-layout","metadata-length","metadata-listicle-roundup","metadata-narrative-frame","metadata-national-affiliate-staff","metadata-standard","metadata-voice"],"acf":{"header_layout":"full-bleed","header_image":218636,"mobile_header_image":218638,"description":"In a letter calling to end immigration detention at Fort Bliss, interviews with 45 people report physical and sexual abuse, medical neglect, and intimidation to self-deport.","authors":[213787],"components":[{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":{"text":"At the largest immigration detention site in the country, officers beat up Samuel, a detained teenager who uses a pseudonym, so badly, he had to go to the hospital. His right front tooth broke, and he said one officer \u201cgrabbed my testicles and firmly crushed them,\u201d while another \u201cforced his fingers deep into my ears.\u201d He added that weeks after the beating, damage to his left ear was so severe that he now has trouble hearing.\r\n\r\nSamuel\u2019s is just one of dozens of accounts of abuse from the immigration detention site at the Fort Bliss military base in El Paso, Texas. These accounts reveal an unfolding humanitarian crisis at the military base \u2014 one which may spread across the country as the Trump administration expands detention dangerously, recklessly and with unprecedented speed.\r\n\r\nHuman rights organizations, including the ACLU, sent a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/documents\/ice-letter-re-fort-bliss\">letter<\/a> Monday to U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) detailing accounts of violent assaults and sexual abuse by officers. It also reveals details of other forms of intimidation used to pressure detained immigrants into self-deporting or agreeing to removal to third countries where they have no ties. The findings are based on interviews with more than 45 people currently held at Fort Bliss, and the letter includes <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/documents\/fort-bliss-declarations-december-2025\">16 signed declarations<\/a> by people detained at the facility. Tragically, Francisco Gaspar Andres, an immigrant from Guatemala, <a class=\"c-link c-link--underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ice.gov\/news\/releases\/illegal-alien-guatemala-ice-custody-dies-local-hospital-suspected-natural-causes?utm_source=substack&amp;utm_medium=email\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">died<\/a> of liver and kidney failure after he failed to receive appropriate medical care at Fort Bliss on December 3, 2025.\r\n\r\nICE began detaining people at Fort Bliss <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/immigrants-rights\/new-detention-camp-at-fort-bliss-marks-dangerous-expansion-of-militarized-immigration-enforcement\">three months ago<\/a>, while the site was still an active construction zone. Fort Bliss is the largest detention facility in the country, holding roughly 3,000 people, just a few thousand shy of its planned maximum capacity. Immigrants are housed in tent structures in the extreme El Paso heat. This tent camp, built on a former Japanese internment camp, marked the Trump administration's novel approach to expanding the immigration detention system in its second term. Fort Bliss is the administration\u2019s first detention facility at a military base, but likely not the last. With a $1.2 billion price tag, the facility marks a pivotal point in the Trump administration\u2019s effort to use the U.S. military, in this case its bases, as a central tool of immigration enforcement."}},{"acf_fc_layout":"heading","heading":{"":null,"text":"Detained Immigrants Describe Alarming Conditions at Fort Bliss","anchor":"","sub-heading":"","type":"h2","heading-style":"mark"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":{"text":"Since its opening, media reports and stories from people detained affirm the conditions, rights violations, and deliberate opacity the ACLU warned would follow the opening of this site. Recent reporting reveals alarming conditions at Fort Bliss. The site has already racked up <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/business\/2025\/09\/16\/ice-detention-center-immigration-violations\/\">60 violations of federal detention standards within its first 50 days<\/a> of operation.\r\n\r\nEach pod holds 60\u201370 people who report chronic food shortages, with meals sufficient for only about 50 individuals. People are forced to ration food, skip meals, or take turns eating \u2014 and when food is available, it is often spoiled or partially frozen, causing widespread vomiting, diarrhea, and rapid weight loss. Basic hygiene supplies are scarce: pods receive only a handful of rolls of toilet paper, and people go days without soap, clean clothing, or access to functioning showers. Detainees describe tents and bathrooms flooded with foul water mixed with urine and feces, creating squalid and unsafe living conditions.\r\n\r\nAccess to medical care is equally alarming. Individuals with serious conditions report going days or weeks without prescribed medication or having medical requests ignored until someone collapses. They are named here using pseudonyms to protect their identities. Josefina, who has diabetes, describes receiving insulin at erratic intervals that cause dangerous spikes and crashes in her blood sugar. Fernando went 15 days without his prescribed blood pressure medication. Others, including Ignacio, who previously suffered a stroke, report blurry vision and other clear warning signs while officers fail to provide timely care. Detainees consistently say that staff do not respond to medical requests for days and that people must faint or bleed before receiving attention.\r\n\r\nExtreme and unlawful use of force is also prominent at Fort Bliss. Several detained individuals have described violent assaults by officers, including sexual abuse. Ignacio, Samuel, and others report officers crushing their testicles during beatings \u2014 a tactic used while people were already restrained or after they refused coerced removal to Mexico. Abel, Benjamin, and Eduardo also reported being slammed, stomped on, or beaten when they expressed fear of being sent to Mexico or when they simply requested their medication. These are not isolated incidents; they reflect a pattern of brutality that violates even ICE\u2019s minimal standards.\r\n\r\nAccess to counsel and legal services is similarly inadequate. When Fort Bliss opened, it relied almost entirely on tablets for visitation and attorney communication, offering no privacy for confidential legal calls. The facility has since modified its protocols, but legal service providers are now allowed to meet with only ten detainees per day \u2014 an impossible limitation for a population of roughly 3,000. Many still lack working PINs to call attorneys, and the so-called law library contains no legal materials.\r\n\r\nThese rights violations \u2014 layered on top of hazardous conditions such as leaking water, unstable infrastructure, filthy tents, and ongoing construction \u2014 paint a grim picture."}},{"acf_fc_layout":"heading","heading":{"":null,"text":"Fort Bliss Signals the Dangerous Future of Immigration Detention Under Trump","anchor":"","sub-heading":"","type":"h2","heading-style":"mark"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":{"text":"If this is the state of a brand-new, billion-dollar facility within its first 90 days, the outlook for the next wave of military-base detention centers is dire. As detention sites open every few weeks nationwide, the ACLU anticipates that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.njspotlightnews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/123\/2025\/07\/Scanned-from-a-Xerox-Multifunction-Printer.pdf\">Fort Dix in New Jersey<\/a> will be the next military site the Trump administration will use for mass immigration detention. There have also been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/11\/14\/nyregion\/ice-detention-facility-staten-island.html\">reports<\/a> of ICE scouting a Coast Guard base in New York for immigration detention.\r\n\r\nWhat we are witnessing at Fort Bliss is not an anomaly; it is a warning. The conditions at Fort Bliss reflect a broader pattern of ICE evading oversight and accountability. The facility is a failed experiment that exposes the dangers of rapidly expanding detention, minimal safeguards, limited transparency, and virtually no oversight.\r\n\r\nDespite <a href=\"https:\/\/immigrantjustice.org\/research\/toolkit-immigration-detention-oversight-and-accountability\/\">clear congressional authority<\/a> to conduct announced or unannounced visits to ICE facilities, ICE continues to enforce a policy that requires congressional offices to give them a seven-day notice ahead of detention visits and routinely denies them access to Fort Bliss and other sites. During the recent government shutdown, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/live-updates\/2025\/10\/29\/congress\/ice-quietly-furloughed-its-congressional-relations-team-during-shutdown-00627355\">ICE even classified its congressional relations staff as \u201cnon-essential\u201d<\/a> and furloughed them. As a result, ICE detention facilities turned into information blackout sites with no direct channels to learn about what was happening inside.\r\n\r\nThe grim reality unfolding at Fort Bliss should serve as a stark warning: the Trump administration\u2019s mass detention surge is not just unsustainable, but fundamentally dangerous. What is happening at Fort Bliss today foreshadows the humanitarian crises that will follow at every new facility opened under this unchecked strategy. Unless policymakers, courts, and the public intervene now, Fort Bliss will not be an outlier; it will be remembered as the template. Congress must hold the Trump administration accountable and ensure ICE immediately halt detention at Fort Bliss, and cease expanding the use of military resources for immigration detention and enforcement."}}],"featured_cases_section":{"enable_featured_cases":false,"title":"Featured Cases","description":"","featured_cases":null},"action":[148398],"issues":[46529,46324,46537,46531],"related_content_cases":"","related_content_documents":"","related_content_publications":"","related_affiliates":"","content_layout":"standard","theme":"light","drupal_nid":""},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>American Civil Liberties Union<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Detained people at largest immigration detention facility in the country report accounts of physical and sexual abuse.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Immigrants Detained at Fort Bliss in Texas Report Abuse and Inhumane Conditions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Detained people at largest immigration detention facility in the country report accounts of physical and sexual abuse.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/immigrants-rights\/detained-immigrants-detail-physical-abuse-and-inhumane-conditions-at-largest-immigration-detention-center-in-the-u-s\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Civil Liberties Union\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-12-08T21:14:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-09T18:30:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Haddy Gassama\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@aclu\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@aclu\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/immigrants-rights\/detained-immigrants-detail-physical-abuse-and-inhumane-conditions-at-largest-immigration-detention-center-in-the-u-s\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/immigrants-rights\/detained-immigrants-detail-physical-abuse-and-inhumane-conditions-at-largest-immigration-detention-center-in-the-u-s\",\"name\":\"Immigrants Detained at Fort Bliss in Texas Report Abuse and Inhumane Conditions\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-08T21:14:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-12-09T18:30:38+00:00\",\"description\":\"Detained people at largest immigration detention facility in the country report accounts of physical and sexual abuse.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/immigrants-rights\/detained-immigrants-detail-physical-abuse-and-inhumane-conditions-at-largest-immigration-detention-center-in-the-u-s\"]}],\"author\":{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#\/schema\/person\/haddy-gassama\",\"name\":\"Haddy Gassama\",\"jobTitle\":\"Senior Policy Counsel, National Political Advocacy Department, ACLU\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/bio\/haddy-gassama\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#\/schema\/person\/photo\/haddy-gassama\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/assets.aclu.org\/live\/uploads\/2025\/08\/HJG-Headshot.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/assets.aclu.org\/live\/uploads\/2025\/08\/HJG-Headshot.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Haddy Gassama\"}}},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/\",\"name\":\"American Civil Liberties Union\",\"description\":\"The ACLU dares to create a more perfect union \u2014 beyond one person, party, or side. 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