GULAG AMERIKA
Trump Pays Eye-Watering Amount to Build Biggest Immigration Camp Ever
Edith Olmsted
Associated Press
Wed, July 23, 2025
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem speaks during a news conference at the Nashville International Airport, Thursday, July 17, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
The U.S. government is building an immense 5,000-person detention camp in west Texas, government contract announcements said, sharply increasing the Trump administration’s ability to hold detained immigrants amid its ever-growing mass deportation efforts.
A Defense Department contract announcement on Monday said Acquisition Logistics, a Virginia-based firm, had been awarded $232 million in Army funds to build the facility, which would be used for single immigrant adults.
Procurement documents called it a “soft sided facility,” a phrase often used for tent camps.
The announcement came just weeks after Florida authorities rushed to construct a new immigration detention center dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” which was built on an isolated airstrip surrounded by swampland in the Florida Everglades.
The announcement said the new facility would be built in El Paso, which is home to Ft. Bliss, an Army base that stretches across parts of Texas and New Mexico.
President Donald Trump recently signed a law setting aside $170 billion on border and immigration enforcement, including $45 billion for detention, even as the number of illegal border crossings has plunged. ICE will see its funding grow by $76.5 billion over five years, nearly 10 times its current annual budget.
Trump has vowed to deport millions of immigrants living illegally in the U.S.
Kristian Jaime,
Fort Bliss as a deportation hub
Photos of a deportation flight out of Fort Bliss on Thursday, Jan. 23.
Acquisition Logistics LLC declined to comment on any current government contracts when contacted by the El Paso Times. Leticia Zamarippa, the spokesperson for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also declined to comment on the construction.
Arturo Rodriguez, public affairs deputy for the 1st Armored Division at Fort Bliss, noted the Department of Defense cleared the way for the use of the Fort Bliss land for immigration detention use four months ago.
"On March 28, 2025, the secretary of defense approved the use of Army land on Fort bliss, in El Paso County, Texas (Site Monitor), on a non-reimbursable basis, in order for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to establish a holding facility to temporarily house specified illegal aliens," the statement said.
Rodriguez added "per the memorandum of understanding between the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement El Paso Field Office and U.S. Army Garrison Fort Bliss, the use of Fort Bliss parcel (Site Monitor) to expand ICE detention and removal operations is under Department of Homeland Security and ICE authority."
On Tuesday, Bloomberg News reported the contract was worth an estimated $1.26 billion with the Army providing the initial $232 million.
More on past protests Dozens join national 'Good Trouble' anti-Trump protest in El Paso
Plans by the White House would make the Fort Bliss location the largest deportation hub in the nation. The Trump administration has stated it has a goal of arresting one million illegal immigrants a year. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote in a letter to Congress that the US Department of Homeland Security would use military bases in New Jersey and Indiana for immigration detention on a “temporary” basis.
Trump had previously suggested that 30,000 immigrants could be detained at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Concerns about ICE facility oversight
U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, visits the facilities where the Trump administration is detaining migrants at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba on March 10
The possibility of another, much larger, immigration detention center raises the question of adequate congressional oversight of such facilities.
On July 10, U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar was turned away from carrying out an oversight visit at the Immigration and Customs processing facility on Montana Avenue, her office said in a news statement.
Escobar, D-El Paso, arrived at the El Paso facility Wednesday, July 9, in the afternoon, but she was blocked from entering.
“Today, after giving ICE 24 hours’ notice, more than is required by law, I was turned away from the ICE facility on Montana Ave. where I planned to conduct my constitutionally authorized oversight duties," Escobar said in the statement. “This facility has been plagued with accusations of mistreatment and inhumane conditions falling well within the scope of my congressional oversight authority."
The facility has space to hold nearly 900 people.
Escobar has regularly made oversight visits to ICE detention facilities in the El Paso area and elsewhere to learn if the conditions there meet legal and humane requirements. She visited the soft-sided facility on Highway 54 in June without any access problems.
More on other detention facilities ICE detention is growing in the South. This state was the first.
The Department of Homeland Security under Secretary Kristi Noem issued new requirements for congressional visits to ICE facilities, requiring at least 72 hours' notice in advance.
El Paso Times reporter Jeff Abbott contributed to this report.
Kristian Jaime is the Top Story Reporter for the El Paso Times and is reachable at Kjaime@elpasotimes.com.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Fort Bliss to host largest ICE detention center, deportation hub in US
Local migrant advocates react to immigration facility at Fort Bliss
Luisa Barrios
KTSM
Wed, July 23, 2025
EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — Local migrant advocates are reacting to the reports of the federal government building what would be the largest immigration facility at Fort Bliss.
As we previously reported, the facility would have a capacity of 5,000 people, and is expected to be completed by September 2027.
Reports: Largest immigration facility in U.S. to be at Fort Bliss
Fernando Garcia, the executive director of the Border Network for Human Rights (BNHR) sent the following statement:
“The announcement of a billion-dollar contract to construct what would become the largest deportation center in the country is deeply alarming. At a time when funding for education, housing, healthcare, and other essential social services is being cut, this administration is funneling millions of dollars to fuel its cruel, inhumane, and anti-immigrant agenda, one that continues tearing families, destabilizing communities, and dividing our nation.
“This is not the first time our community has been targeted by such policies and strategies and it is certainly not the first time we have warned about the serious human and civil rights violations that they produce. We remember and carry a collective memory of the hundreds of unaccompanied children once held at Fort Bliss, despite allegations of overcrowding, sexual abuse, and inadequate mental health services. Under no circumstances should any individual—child, woman, man, or family—be subjected to these cruel and dehumanizing detention practices.
“Once again, we raise the alarm against a strategy that history has shown to be consistently ineffective, profoundly harmful, and deeply inhumane. We call on this administration to reverse course and, instead, invest in real, humane solutions to fix our broken immigration and refugee system.”
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved
Edith Olmsted
THE NEW REPUBLIC
Tue, July 22, 2025
Donald Trump’s administration has signed off on building the country’s largest immigrant detention center, a sprawling tent camp at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas.
The Department of Defense awarded the Virginia-based company Acquisition Logistics a nearly $232 million contract to establish and operate a 5,000-bed short-term detention facility, according to a contract notice Monday. In total, however, the contract is worth closer to $1.26 billion, two people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named publicly told Bloomberg.
The new tent camp is estimated to be completed by the end of September 2027. Sitting close to the Mexican border, and with its own airport, the new facility would serve as a deportation hub for the Trump administration’s purge of immigrants from the United States.
For scale, an estimated 700 detainees are currently held at “Alligator Alcatraz,” but the Trump administration’s wetland-themed concentration camp in the Florida Everglades is also expected to have a capacity of up to 5,000 people, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Acquisition Logistics has no experience in detention, according to Bloomberg. The company specializes in supply chain and project management, as well as technical and engineering services, and has previously received $29 billion worth of contracts from the DOD for jobs such as providing logistical capabilities, or lodging and conference room services for the agency’s work at the Southern border.
Emma Winger, deputy legal director at the American Immigration Council, expressed grave concern to Bloomberg over the government’s plans to house immigrants in tents. “All the reasons why you and I live not in tents but in homes are going to inevitably come up in a facility that doesn’t offer people walls and floors and insulation,” she said.
“It’s very hard to imagine how soft-sided facilities could satisfy even the low detention standards that are reflected in ICE’s most recent standards,” Winger added. This latest contract comes amid reports of inhumane conditions at ICE facilities, where detainees have alleged physical abuse, medical neglect, and psychological torture.
Acquisition Logistics’ startling lack of experience setting up a detention facility, as well as the government’s own wavering commitment to safe conditions for detainees, ought to spark grave concern as the rate of immigration arrests and of deaths in ICE facilities continues to rise. The government has greenlit yet another concentration camp—and this one is on track to be the largest so far.
This latest contract comes as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that two army bases would be used to house immigrant detainees, one in New Jersey and the other in Illinois. The moves severely undermine his supposed commitment to maximizing so-called military “lethality,” by transforming his own training facilities into pit stops for his boss’s campaign of ethnic cleansing. Like those facilities, Fort Bliss had previously housed Afghan refugees as part of the Biden administration’s Operation Allies Welcome.
The government previously operated an Emergency Intake Site at Fort Bliss under the Biden administration, erecting a tent city to house unaccompanied migrant children. One whistleblower account revealed horrific living conditions similar to those in ICE facilities now, with children subjected to constant light, collective punishment, and even burns from unsafe materials.
US government is building a 5,000-person immigrant detention camp in west Texas
Tue, July 22, 2025
Donald Trump’s administration has signed off on building the country’s largest immigrant detention center, a sprawling tent camp at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas.
The Department of Defense awarded the Virginia-based company Acquisition Logistics a nearly $232 million contract to establish and operate a 5,000-bed short-term detention facility, according to a contract notice Monday. In total, however, the contract is worth closer to $1.26 billion, two people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named publicly told Bloomberg.
The new tent camp is estimated to be completed by the end of September 2027. Sitting close to the Mexican border, and with its own airport, the new facility would serve as a deportation hub for the Trump administration’s purge of immigrants from the United States.
For scale, an estimated 700 detainees are currently held at “Alligator Alcatraz,” but the Trump administration’s wetland-themed concentration camp in the Florida Everglades is also expected to have a capacity of up to 5,000 people, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Acquisition Logistics has no experience in detention, according to Bloomberg. The company specializes in supply chain and project management, as well as technical and engineering services, and has previously received $29 billion worth of contracts from the DOD for jobs such as providing logistical capabilities, or lodging and conference room services for the agency’s work at the Southern border.
Emma Winger, deputy legal director at the American Immigration Council, expressed grave concern to Bloomberg over the government’s plans to house immigrants in tents. “All the reasons why you and I live not in tents but in homes are going to inevitably come up in a facility that doesn’t offer people walls and floors and insulation,” she said.
“It’s very hard to imagine how soft-sided facilities could satisfy even the low detention standards that are reflected in ICE’s most recent standards,” Winger added. This latest contract comes amid reports of inhumane conditions at ICE facilities, where detainees have alleged physical abuse, medical neglect, and psychological torture.
Acquisition Logistics’ startling lack of experience setting up a detention facility, as well as the government’s own wavering commitment to safe conditions for detainees, ought to spark grave concern as the rate of immigration arrests and of deaths in ICE facilities continues to rise. The government has greenlit yet another concentration camp—and this one is on track to be the largest so far.
This latest contract comes as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that two army bases would be used to house immigrant detainees, one in New Jersey and the other in Illinois. The moves severely undermine his supposed commitment to maximizing so-called military “lethality,” by transforming his own training facilities into pit stops for his boss’s campaign of ethnic cleansing. Like those facilities, Fort Bliss had previously housed Afghan refugees as part of the Biden administration’s Operation Allies Welcome.
The government previously operated an Emergency Intake Site at Fort Bliss under the Biden administration, erecting a tent city to house unaccompanied migrant children. One whistleblower account revealed horrific living conditions similar to those in ICE facilities now, with children subjected to constant light, collective punishment, and even burns from unsafe materials.
US government is building a 5,000-person immigrant detention camp in west Texas
Associated Press
Wed, July 23, 2025
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem speaks during a news conference at the Nashville International Airport, Thursday, July 17, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
The U.S. government is building an immense 5,000-person detention camp in west Texas, government contract announcements said, sharply increasing the Trump administration’s ability to hold detained immigrants amid its ever-growing mass deportation efforts.
A Defense Department contract announcement on Monday said Acquisition Logistics, a Virginia-based firm, had been awarded $232 million in Army funds to build the facility, which would be used for single immigrant adults.
Procurement documents called it a “soft sided facility,” a phrase often used for tent camps.
The announcement came just weeks after Florida authorities rushed to construct a new immigration detention center dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” which was built on an isolated airstrip surrounded by swampland in the Florida Everglades.
The announcement said the new facility would be built in El Paso, which is home to Ft. Bliss, an Army base that stretches across parts of Texas and New Mexico.
President Donald Trump recently signed a law setting aside $170 billion on border and immigration enforcement, including $45 billion for detention, even as the number of illegal border crossings has plunged. ICE will see its funding grow by $76.5 billion over five years, nearly 10 times its current annual budget.
Trump has vowed to deport millions of immigrants living illegally in the U.S.
Defense OKs Fort Bliss site for 5,000-bed ICE deportation hub amid executive order push
Kristian Jaime,
El Paso Times
Wed, July 23, 2025
Plans to construct the largest immigration detention center in the United States on Fort Bliss Army Post land are going forward with the announcement of a new federal contract.
On Monday, the Department of Defense announced Acquisition Logistics LLC, of Henrico, Virginia, was awarded a $231,878,229 firm-fixed-price contract to establish and operate a 5,000 capacity, single adult, short-term detention facility for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The contract comes on the heels of Presidential Executive Order 14159, which outlines using "national security assets for law and order."
"Bids were solicited via the internet with 13 received. Work will be performed in El Paso, Texas, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 30, 2027. Fiscal 2025 operation and maintenance, Army funds in the amount of $231,878,229 were obligated at the time of the award," the contract overview states.
More on current legislation What is Dignity Act 2025? How will it change US immigration system?
Wed, July 23, 2025
Plans to construct the largest immigration detention center in the United States on Fort Bliss Army Post land are going forward with the announcement of a new federal contract.
On Monday, the Department of Defense announced Acquisition Logistics LLC, of Henrico, Virginia, was awarded a $231,878,229 firm-fixed-price contract to establish and operate a 5,000 capacity, single adult, short-term detention facility for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The contract comes on the heels of Presidential Executive Order 14159, which outlines using "national security assets for law and order."
"Bids were solicited via the internet with 13 received. Work will be performed in El Paso, Texas, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 30, 2027. Fiscal 2025 operation and maintenance, Army funds in the amount of $231,878,229 were obligated at the time of the award," the contract overview states.
More on current legislation What is Dignity Act 2025? How will it change US immigration system?
Fort Bliss as a deportation hub
Photos of a deportation flight out of Fort Bliss on Thursday, Jan. 23.
Acquisition Logistics LLC declined to comment on any current government contracts when contacted by the El Paso Times. Leticia Zamarippa, the spokesperson for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also declined to comment on the construction.
Arturo Rodriguez, public affairs deputy for the 1st Armored Division at Fort Bliss, noted the Department of Defense cleared the way for the use of the Fort Bliss land for immigration detention use four months ago.
"On March 28, 2025, the secretary of defense approved the use of Army land on Fort bliss, in El Paso County, Texas (Site Monitor), on a non-reimbursable basis, in order for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to establish a holding facility to temporarily house specified illegal aliens," the statement said.
Rodriguez added "per the memorandum of understanding between the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement El Paso Field Office and U.S. Army Garrison Fort Bliss, the use of Fort Bliss parcel (Site Monitor) to expand ICE detention and removal operations is under Department of Homeland Security and ICE authority."
On Tuesday, Bloomberg News reported the contract was worth an estimated $1.26 billion with the Army providing the initial $232 million.
More on past protests Dozens join national 'Good Trouble' anti-Trump protest in El Paso
Plans by the White House would make the Fort Bliss location the largest deportation hub in the nation. The Trump administration has stated it has a goal of arresting one million illegal immigrants a year. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote in a letter to Congress that the US Department of Homeland Security would use military bases in New Jersey and Indiana for immigration detention on a “temporary” basis.
Trump had previously suggested that 30,000 immigrants could be detained at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Concerns about ICE facility oversight
U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, visits the facilities where the Trump administration is detaining migrants at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba on March 10
The possibility of another, much larger, immigration detention center raises the question of adequate congressional oversight of such facilities.
On July 10, U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar was turned away from carrying out an oversight visit at the Immigration and Customs processing facility on Montana Avenue, her office said in a news statement.
Escobar, D-El Paso, arrived at the El Paso facility Wednesday, July 9, in the afternoon, but she was blocked from entering.
“Today, after giving ICE 24 hours’ notice, more than is required by law, I was turned away from the ICE facility on Montana Ave. where I planned to conduct my constitutionally authorized oversight duties," Escobar said in the statement. “This facility has been plagued with accusations of mistreatment and inhumane conditions falling well within the scope of my congressional oversight authority."
The facility has space to hold nearly 900 people.
Escobar has regularly made oversight visits to ICE detention facilities in the El Paso area and elsewhere to learn if the conditions there meet legal and humane requirements. She visited the soft-sided facility on Highway 54 in June without any access problems.
More on other detention facilities ICE detention is growing in the South. This state was the first.
The Department of Homeland Security under Secretary Kristi Noem issued new requirements for congressional visits to ICE facilities, requiring at least 72 hours' notice in advance.
El Paso Times reporter Jeff Abbott contributed to this report.
Kristian Jaime is the Top Story Reporter for the El Paso Times and is reachable at Kjaime@elpasotimes.com.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Fort Bliss to host largest ICE detention center, deportation hub in US
Local migrant advocates react to immigration facility at Fort Bliss
Luisa Barrios
KTSM
Wed, July 23, 2025
EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — Local migrant advocates are reacting to the reports of the federal government building what would be the largest immigration facility at Fort Bliss.
As we previously reported, the facility would have a capacity of 5,000 people, and is expected to be completed by September 2027.
Reports: Largest immigration facility in U.S. to be at Fort Bliss
Fernando Garcia, the executive director of the Border Network for Human Rights (BNHR) sent the following statement:
“The announcement of a billion-dollar contract to construct what would become the largest deportation center in the country is deeply alarming. At a time when funding for education, housing, healthcare, and other essential social services is being cut, this administration is funneling millions of dollars to fuel its cruel, inhumane, and anti-immigrant agenda, one that continues tearing families, destabilizing communities, and dividing our nation.
“This is not the first time our community has been targeted by such policies and strategies and it is certainly not the first time we have warned about the serious human and civil rights violations that they produce. We remember and carry a collective memory of the hundreds of unaccompanied children once held at Fort Bliss, despite allegations of overcrowding, sexual abuse, and inadequate mental health services. Under no circumstances should any individual—child, woman, man, or family—be subjected to these cruel and dehumanizing detention practices.
“Once again, we raise the alarm against a strategy that history has shown to be consistently ineffective, profoundly harmful, and deeply inhumane. We call on this administration to reverse course and, instead, invest in real, humane solutions to fix our broken immigration and refugee system.”
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment