U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar has joined forces with other congressional leaders in an attempt to establish “crucial oversight and basic human-rights protections” for the thousands of immigrants being held in public and private detention facilities.
Escobar is a co-sponsor of the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act that looks to improve conditions within immigrant detention facilities across the country — including one of the largest lockups in El Paso.
The bill aims to improve congressional oversight of the sites, which have seen increasing accusations of human rights violations and inhumane conditions.
Key provisions in the bill would give members of Congress access to detention facilities for unannounced inspections and establish civil detention standards that match or exceed the level of protection in the American Bar Association’s Civil Immigration Detention Standards.
The bill was presented by its authors U.S. Reps. Pramila Jayapal and Adam Smith, both Democrats from Washington state, on Dec. 3.
“I have seen firsthand the consequences of incompetence, cruelty and inhumane treatment that flourishes when private prison corporations are allowed to profit off suffering, including at Camp East Montana,” Escobar, D-El Paso, said in a statement. “The Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act is an urgent and necessary step toward ending such abuse that’s central to the Trump administration. I’m grateful to Representatives Jayapal and Smith for introducing this bill which establishes crucial oversight and basic human-rights protections that this administration has systematically dismantled.”
There are 123 co-sponsors. It is also endorsed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Haitian Bridge Alliance and Refugees International, among many others immigrant advocacy groups.
The bill would:
“People are being held in squalor, largely in private, for-profit detention facilities, all to pad the bottom lines of prison corporations that donate to Donald Trump and Republicans,” Jayapal said announcing the act. “As Trump has struck down legal pathways and made it nearly impossible to come to or stay in this country, even for those who have been here for decades, this will only continue to get worse. We must pass this legislation to protect dignity and civil rights in America.”
There are currently nearly 70,000 people detained across the U.S., the majority of whom have no criminal convictions.
The legislative measure comes as Escobar and other immigrants rights advocates have raised grave concern over the conditions within immigration detention facilities.
The ICE immigration detention facility at Fort Bliss is at the center of the controversy.
Congressional concern over the Camp East Montana detention center
Escobar has continued to express her concern about the conditions at the Camp East Montana immigration detention facility, which ICE opened on land that belongs to Fort Bliss Army Post.
She has carried out three oversight visits to the facility since it began receiving detained migrants on Aug. 1, and sent at least two letters to the Department of Homeland Security over concerns about the conditions in the facility. Her concerns include inadequate medical attention — with detainees not receiving their medication — unsanitary conditions where detainees have requested equipment to clean their spaces, and poor quality to rotten food.
Escobar sent a letter to Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, in November expressing her concerns about the facility. She stated then that “conditions at Camp East Montana are dangerous and inhumane.”
The congresswoman made her latest visit to the facility on Dec. 1. She found that many of the issues that she discovered during her earlier visits have not been addressed.
“Not only is there no process being made on the issues I have raised,” Escobar told the El Paso Times. “But it is clear to me that the contractors are either cutting corners to create bigger profit for themselves or that the contractors are not competent.”
The facility is set to be the largest in the country, ultimately housing 5,000 detainees. The Trump administration granted over $1.2 billion dollars for its construction.
There are currently about 3,000 people detained at the immigration detention facility, Escobar said. And many of the immigrants detained at the El Paso immigration are being taken directly to the sprawling detention camp following their hearings, court observers said.
During her last visit, Escobar was able to speak with 10 women in the facility.
Escobar detailed that she has consistently heard that detainees are being forced to wash their own clothes, they are not being provided with adequate hygiene products and detainees have continued to receive food that is either foul tasting or rotten. The women she spoke with also reported having developed rashes due to the alcohol-based gel they have used to wash their clothing.
Escobar noted that some immigrants she has spoken with have been detained for nearly two months. Originally, the facility was meant to hold immigrants for up to five days.
“These are human beings who deserve to be treated as human beings,” the congresswoman said. “Even if there are people who do not care about the humanitarian component of my concerns, then why should be outraged that a contractor that is getting $1.24 billion dollars of taxpayer money is not meeting the obligations that they should be meeting.”
Calls to shut down Camp East Montana
The ACLU and other immigrant rights advocacy groups, including El Paso’s Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center and Estrella del Paso, sent a letter to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement urging officials to cease detaining immigrants in the soft-sided detention facility.
Detainees held in the facility have told lawyers about the squalid conditions and human rights violations in the camps, the ACLU reports. The letter details the horrid conditions in the facility, including “beatings and sexual abuse by officers against detained immigrants, beatings and coercive threats to compel deportation to third countries, medical neglect, hunger and insufficient food, and denial of meaningful access to counsel, among other rights violations.”
The letter recounts the story of four Cuban immigrants held in the facility who reported being beaten by guards after refusing to be deported to Mexico. It also recounts the experience of one detainee, Samuel, who had his “testicles crushed” by a guard and was beaten to the point where he was taken in an ambulance from the facility.
The ACLU letter is the latest in a series of reports highlighting the dire conditions at the facility. It echoes and cites similar concerns Escobar has expressed and internal ICE inspectors reports of violations.
The Washington Post reported in September that the detention facility was found to have no less than 60 violations in 50 days as the Trump administration expands the facility. Detainees were subjected to conditions that violated federal standards for immigrant detention, according to a report produced by ICE inspectors.
Inspectors found the facility failed to properly monitor and treat some detainees’ medical conditions, lacked basic procedures for keeping guards and detainees safe and inadequately provided detainees with proper means to communicate with legal representation.
Jeff Abbott covers the border for the El Paso Times and can be reached at:jdabbott@usatodayco.com; @palabrasdeabajo on Twitter or @palabrasdeabajo.bsky.social on Bluesky.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: US Rep. Escobar joins calls to improve conditions at ICE facilities
Reporting by Jeff Abbott, El Paso Times / El Paso Times
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