Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Wednesday released a joint report documenting deaths, beatings, medical neglect, and conditions that may amount to enforced disappearance at the immigration detention camp at the US Army’s Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas.

The 84-page report, titled “You’re Only Getting Out Deported or Dead,” is based on interviews with 80 people, including 71 currently detained at the facility, conducted between October 2025 and June 2026. It describes conditions at Camp East Montana, which the groups call the largest immigration detention facility in the United States. The camp has capacity for up to 5,000 people and houses detainees in penned enclosures inside tent-like structures, with up to 72 people per pod.

Researchers also reviewed US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) records and an internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) investigation that documented impermissible and unreported uses of force at the facility, in apparent violation of ICE’s Performance-Based National Detention Standards, which state that civil immigration detention is intended to be non-punitive.

The report documents what it describes as the extrajudicial killing of Gerardo Lunas Campos on January 3, 2026. Witnesses told researchers that guards asphyxiated Lunas Campos after he requested medication while held in solitary confinement, crying, “I can’t breathe!” and, “You are suffocating me,” before falling silent.

Researchers also found that more than 60 people interviewed said they had been arrested despite showing documentation of lawful presence in the United States. Detainees described being transferred through jails and holding facilities without meaningful communication with family or lawyers, and they said ICE tracking systems failed to reflect their whereabouts. Cuban and Venezuelan detainees said they were pressured into accepting removal to Mexico despite ongoing legal proceedings and their fears of harm there, in possible violation of the principle of non-refoulement under the Convention Against Torture.

“ICE’s Camp East Montana is a human rights disaster,” said Angélica César, Aryeh Neier Fellow at HRW and the ACLU. “The US government should shut it down, conduct independent investigations into all abuses and deaths in custody, and put an end to mass deportations and mandatory immigration detention.”

HRW and the ACLU called for Camp East Montana’s closure, investigations into all deaths and alleged abuses, and an end to mandatory immigration detention. The groups published a related June report documenting rising deaths across the US immigration detention system nationwide.

HRW said it sought comment from the DHS, the Department of Defense, and the contractors operating Camp East Montana before publication but received no replies. No plans to close the facility or conduct an independent investigation have been announced.