A long paved road, flanked by desert sand, leads to the big white tents usually housing some 3,000 immigrants, with beds for up to 2,000 more.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center is located on the grounds of the U.S. Army's Fort Bliss military base and is known as Camp East Montana.
Opened in August 2025, it's currently the largest immigrant detention center in the U.S. and one of the facilities with the most detainee deaths. Out of 25 people who died in ICE detention since October, three of them were at Camp East Montana.
Concerns are rising among immigration advocates, lawmakers and former detainees about the company that initially ran the detention center, Acquisition Logistics, which had never run a center before securing a $1.3 billion federal contract. Advocates and multiple members of Congress are calling for the facility to be shut down.
