The “largest federal detention center in history” will open at the Army’s Fort Bliss later this month as part of the federal government’s ongoing effort to detain and deport migrants.
The new facility, Camp East Montana, is set to open on Aug. 17 on the base, with an initial capacity for 1,000 people. The use of the Army base in Texas by Immigration and Customs Enforcement is the latest instance of the Department of Homeland Security leaning on the military for logistical support.
The El Paso Times first reported on the opening date. The Pentagon confirmed the detention center plan on Thursday, Aug. 7, with a spokesperson noting that work started in mid-July, with an expected opening “by mid-late August.”
“Once DOD achieves initial stand up, we will finish construction for up to 5,000 beds in the weeks and months ahead,” the spokesperson said at a briefing, noting that woul dmake it the largest federal detention center.
According to ICE, the detention camp is being used to “decompress” other facilities and will feature “soft-sided” temporary structures. Camp East Montana will serve as a processing center and some people held there will be deported via flights. Although on military grounds, DHS will operate the camp.
Last month the Pentagon confirmed plans to let DHS house detained migrants at two military bases, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey and Camp Atterbury in Indiana. As with the plans for Fort Bliss, DHS personnel will operate the detention center on Department of Defense space. Like with plans for Fort Bliss, the centers will use temporary structures.
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Fort Bliss has housed thousands of non-military people in recent years, ranging from Afghan refugees who arrived after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, to serving as a shelter for migrant children during the Obama and Biden administrations. This year several deportation flights have taken off from Fort Bliss as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to ramp up the expulsion of migrants.
This year the Department of Defense has created several “defense zones” along the southern border — essentially extending the land area of military installations and allowing for anyone caught on it to be charged with trespassing on military property — including one at Fort Bliss. The Pentagon has said that military personnel are not the ones carrying out arrests of anyone found inside the defense zone. So far, as DHS has turned to the military for logistical and security support, the military has by and large avoided directly engaging in law enforcement activity, which it is barred from doing on U.S. soil under the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878. Marines deployed to Los Angeles in June briefly detained an Army veteran who wandered onto federal grounds, before quickly transferring him to other authorities where he was quickly released.
