El Paso's Fort Bliss to become largest immigration detention facility in US
The detention center on the U.S. Army post began receiving the first of 1,000 detainees on Aug. 1, with around 100 individuals arriving at the new detention facility. El Paso's ICE spokesperson Leticia Zamarripa said in a news statement that the goal is to have 1,000 people detained in the facility by Aug. 17.
The Trump administration plans to expand the facility by 250 beds each week until it reaches 1,000. Ultimately, ICE looks to hold 5,000 people at the detention facility.
"We will finish construction for up to 5,000 beds in the weeks and months ahead," Pentagon spokesperson Kingsley Wilson told reporters on Aug. 7. "Upon completion, this will be the largest federal detention center in history for this critical mission."
ICE is responsible for the management and operation of the Fort Bliss detention facility. Zamarripa said in the news statement that the facilities will provide detainees with access to legal representation and a law library, access to visitation and medical treatment, among other services, which detainees receive in other facilities.
The Trump administration has stated that it will hold single adults who are scheduled for deportation. Immigrants held there are scheduled to be there for a short-term period before they are removed from the country.
More: ICE courthouse arrests are leading migrants to avoid their hearings, observers say
The construction of the Fort Bliss detention facility expands ICE's capacity in the El Paso Sector, which stretches from New Mexico's border with Arizona through El Paso County. There are currently three other detention centers in the El Paso area, which includes an ICE detention facility and processing center on Montana Avenue, near the El Paso International Airport, as well as a facility north of the city on Highway 54 and another facility in Otero, New Mexico.
The three facilities can hold up to 3,000 people.
The El Paso Times has reached out to the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to tour the facility, but received no response to any media inquiries.
What do we know about the detention facility?
Former U.S. Secretary of the Army Daniel P. Driscoll announced that construction of the detention facility was imminent in March, following his visit to Fort Bliss and the El Paso area.
During the news conference, Fort Bliss Deputy Committee General Paul Krattiger said that the detention facility would be constructed at the location known as "Site Monitor," which is just off of Montana Avenue and George Dieter Drive.
While the administration of President Donald Trump initially said the facility would hold up to 10,000 detainees, this number was reduced to 5,000.
The Henrico, Virginia-based Acquisition Logistics LLC company was awarded a $231,878,229 firm-fixed-price contract to establish and operate a 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."
More: Fort Bliss once housed refugees, now set for largest ICE deportation center
Military and commercial deportation flights
The Fort Bliss facility is meant to be a hub for the deportation of immigrants and to ease the capacity of centers across the country, ICE officials said.
"ICE is using Camp East Montana to help decompress ICE detention facilities in other regions," the statement said. "It will also serve as a processing facility, and ICE Air Operations will effectuate removals for aliens staged at the facility."
El Paso and Fort Bliss have continued to be the departure site of both military and ICE-chartered commercial deportation flights. Military deportation flights carry fewer deportees than commercial charters, but have a higher operating cost.
More: Trump's first 30 days: Deported Guatemalan migrants suffer, White House touts progress
At least 68 military deportation flights have returned migrants to over a dozen countries since Jan. 24. Thirteen of the flights have departed Fort Bliss' Biggs Army Airfield, according to data compiled by Tom Cartwright with the immigration advocacy group Witness at the Border.
The majority of flights have transported immigrants to Guatemala, Honduras and Ecuador.
Concerns with congressional oversight
The construction of the ICE facility on Fort Bliss raises concerns for congressional oversight to uphold humane conditions at the immigration detention site.
U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, has regularly carried out congressional oversight visits to the facilities, where she has sought to guarantee humane treatment of immigrants held in the detention centers. She was blocked from visiting the Montana Avenue facility in June 2025, leading to her filing a lawsuit against the Trump administration.
She has raised concerns over carrying out oversight at the Fort Bliss detention center.
"It is going to be very challenging to continue to provide oversight if we don't challenge the Trump administration in court," Escobar said at a news conference on July 30. "The lawsuit is pretty critical, especially given the massive expansion of immigration detention that is going to happen as the result of Republicans giving tens of billions of dollars to private corporations."
More: US Rep. Veronica Escobar targets ICE agent's use of masks, says it is eroding public trust
ICE detention facilities across the United States have faced accusations of inhumane conditions.
The ICE facility on Montana Avenue has faced criticisms over the conditions that immigrants face while in custody. Amnesty International raised concerns about the facilities in a report in May 2025, and U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Georgia, who reported immigrants being slammed to the ground by guards at the Montana Avenue center in a report on the abuse of pregnant women and children in ICE detention.
The Department of Homeland Security has refuted these claims.
El Paso Times reporter Kristian Jaime contributed to this report.
Jeff Abbott covers the border for the El Paso Times and can be reached at:jdabbott@gannett.com;@palabrasdeabajo on Twitter or @palabrasdeabajo.bsky.social on Bluesky.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Fort Bliss is becoming the largest immigration detention facility in US
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