EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — The Camp East Montana Detention Facility at Fort Bliss violated at least 60 federal standards, including failing to properly treat some of the detainees’ medical conditions and not providing adequate food, according to a report by the Washington Post.
The report says the first detainees arrived to an “active construction site” and were held at the unfinished facility where they were subjected to conditions that violated at least 60 federal standards for immigrant detention.
The facility failed to “properly monitor and treat some detainees’ medical conditions, lacked basic procedures for keeping guards and detainees safe, and for weeks did not provide many of them a way to contact lawyers, learn about their cases or file complaints,” according to the report.
The report also stated that detainees had limited access to telephones, adequate food, and recreation, and inspectors reported missing medical records, unmonitored suicide watch, and the administration of psychotropic medications without recorded consent.
The newspaper says they obtained a copy of an inspection report completed by the detention oversight unit of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The report has not been made public.
“There are a few federal laws regarding conditions in immigrant detention centers. ICE sets the standards and contractors agree to follow them. ICE can impose penalties, and facilities with too many violations can be closed.”
The Washington Post
The medical contractor at Camp East Montana, a Florida-based firm called Loyal Source, runs several medical clinics for migrant facilities along the Southwest border, according to the report.
The firm was criticized in 2022 for “critical understaffing” by a federal oversight agency regarding the facilities, according to the report.
The report says the facility is expected to hold up to 2,700 migrants at a time this month and as many as 5,000 by the end of the year.
The Border Network for Human Rights issued a statement regarding the report.
“Just last month, BNHR, alongside dozens of community members and organizations, denounced the opening of Camp East Montana, a massive makeshift detention camp inside Fort Bliss. We warned that such facilities would lead to abuse, neglect, and systemic violations of civil and human rights — abuses we have seen time and again. Today’s report confirms our worst fears and what border communities have long known: These are not isolated incidents but part of a repeating cycle in which migrants are treated as disposable in the name of enforcement.”
KTSM 9 News has reached out to Homeland Security’s Office of Public Affairs regarding the report and is waiting for a response.
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