Camp East Montana, the latest and largest of the new migrant detention centers opening across the country, has been met with criticism from immigration advocates after officially opening Sunday.
Protesters greeted the opening of the facility over the weekend.
The detention center, on the grounds of Texas’ Fort Bliss, can currently house 1,000 migrants, with officials saying it can eventually expand to hold 5,000.
“We are demanding that this administration do what they say they’re going to do if they’re not going to close the camps,” Marisa Limon Garza, executive director of Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, told El Paso ABC affiliate KVIA. “At a minimum, we need access to people who have due process and should have access to attorneys.”
The criticism came as a federal judge on Monday heard arguments from lawyers for detainees at the Florida detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz,” who say they lack proper attorney access and are being held without any formal criminal or immigration charges against them.
Democratic Rep. Veronica Escobar, who toured the new Texas detention center Monday, said of the facility’s price tag, “I want you to think about how much good that money could do in El Paso if it were spent on the community, if it were spent on access to child care for El Paso kids, if it were spent on universal pre-K for El Paso kids, if it were spent on health care for El Pasoans.”
“There is a tremendous amount of good that that money could do for El Pasoans, but it is instead being used to fund mass deportation by the Trump administration,” she said.
“It’s important for people to understand we are not talking gardeners or housekeepers,” said Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who visited the facility last week. “These are people who didn’t show up to court-ordered hearings. There is no due process concern. They have no legal right to be here.”
“Under President Trump’s leadership, we are working at turbo speed on cost-effective and innovative ways to deliver on the American people’s mandate for mass deportations of criminal illegal aliens,” Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement Monday. “The One Big Beautiful Bill has provided historic funding to help us carry out this mandate, especially by securing enough detention capacity to maintain an average daily population of 100,000 illegal aliens and 80,000 new ICE beds.”
“The Fort Bliss Facility will offer everything a traditional ICE detention facility offers, including access to legal representation and a law library, access to visitation, recreational space, medical treatment space and nutritionally balanced meals,” McLaughlin said. “It also provides necessary accommodations for disabilities, diet, and religious beliefs.”
ABC News’ Luke Barr contributed to this report.
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