911 calls document deaths and neglect at ICE's largest detention camp

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Emergency calls to 911 from Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas documented repeated suicide attempts, two detainee deaths, seizures, and untreated injuries at the nation’s largest U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility at a rate of nearly one call per day for five months, according to records obtained by the Associated Press.

The AP reviewed 130 calls placed between mid-August 2025 and Jan. 20, 2026, along with interviews with former detainees and court filings. The records described a facility housing an average of approximately 3,000 people per day in tent quarters where diseases spread and medical care was difficult to obtain. ICE data showed 80 percent of detainees at the camp had no criminal record, according to the AP report.

The disclosures come as a required federal inspection that reportedly found at least 60 violations of detention standards has not been released publicly, and as the federal government awarded a contract now worth up to $1.3 billion to a Virginia contractor that had no prior ICE facility experience.

Two deaths, more than a dozen crisis incidents

A medical examiner ruled the Jan. 3 death of Geraldo Lunas Campos, a 55-year-old Cuban man, a homicide caused by asphyxia. ICE said security guards had responded after Campos attempted to harm himself and used handcuffs and force to restrain him.

On Jan. 14, a 36-year-old Nicaraguan man died by suicide days after he was detained while working in Minnesota, according to the AP.

At least six additional incidents in which detainees attempted to harm themselves while expressing suicidal ideation resulted in 911 calls, according to City of El Paso records obtained under the Texas public information law.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said the facility’s medical staff “closely monitors at-risk detainees,” provides mental health treatment and seeks to prevent suicide attempts.

Detainees describe conditions

Owen Ramsingh, a legal permanent resident brought to the United States at age 5, said immigration authorities detained him at Chicago O’Hare International Airport in September after he returned from visiting family in the Netherlands, citing a drug conviction from when he was 16 years old. He was deported to the Netherlands in February after spending several weeks at Camp East Montana.

“Every day felt like a week. Every week felt like a month. Every month felt like a year,” Ramsingh said. “Camp East Montana was 1,000% worse than a prison.”

Ramsingh said he overheard a security guard describe a betting pool among staff members on which detainee would next die by suicide, with $500 contributed and the total amount riding on the outcome. A DHS spokesperson denied Ramsingh’s account and provided no indication of how the agency had sought to verify it.

Roland Kusi, 31, who said he fled Cameroon in 2022 to escape political violence, told the AP that immigration authorities arrested him in Chicago in September at an appointment to register his marriage. His wife is a member of the Army National Guard. He was transferred to Camp East Montana.

“It’s not easy in here, psychologically,” Kusi said. “You just keep thinking, like all the time, you’re thinking and thinking for a solution. … It’s really mentally draining.”

Medical access

A Cuban immigrant in his 50s told the AP he requested medication for diabetes, high blood pressure and an enlarged prostate during six weeks at the camp but said it never arrived. He spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. He said he eventually agreed to self-deport to Ciudad Juárez, Mexico — across the international border from his wife and their 11-year-old son in El Paso.

Rep. Veronica Escobar, a Democrat from El Paso who has toured the facility several times, said a female detainee showed her a serving of scrambled eggs that arrived still frozen in the middle. She said detainees had protested after juice, fruit and milk were removed from their meals.

Escobar said she met a detainee from Ecuador whose arm had been broken during an arrest by immigration agents in Minnesota. Weeks later, she said, the fractured bones in his forearm were still visible under the skin.

“I asked him, have you asked for help? And he said, ‘I ask every day, all day. And the only thing they give me is aspirin,’” Escobar recalled.

A DHS spokesperson rejected characterizations of substandard conditions, saying detainees receive food, water and medical treatment in a facility that is regularly cleaned.

Facility, contractors, and oversight

Camp East Montana occupies six large tents along the Chihuahuan Desert at Fort Bliss, a U.S. Army base that was once used as an internment camp for Japanese Americans during World War II. The administration awarded a contract now worth up to $1.3 billion to Acquisition Logistics LLC, a Virginia contractor that had not previously operated an ICE facility. The company uses subcontractors Akima Global Services for security and Loyal Source for medical services. Akima did not respond to requests for comment; Loyal Source declined comment.

The Washington Post reported in September 2025 that a required ICE inspection found conditions at the facility violated at least 60 federal detention standards, but that report was never released publicly. A DHS spokesperson called claims in the Post story false and said ICE’s Office of Detention Oversight recently completed a new inspection, which also has not been released.

The facility was closed to visitors until at least March 19 because of a measles outbreak, Escobar said. She said the population had been temporarily reduced below 1,900 when she visited last month, following reports of measles and tuberculosis cases.

“This facility should not be operational. It feels like this contractor is reinventing the wheel, and people are losing their lives in their experiment,” Escobar said.

ICE said Tuesday that normal operations continue at the camp. The Washington Post reported Wednesday that ICE is considering a plan to close it.