Women Raise Alarm Inside America's Largest ICE Detention Center
Source: Newsweek
Published Jan 29, 2026 at 05:00 AM EST updated Jan 29, 2026 at 06:42 AM EST
A group of women detained in a sprawling immigration detention facility in West Texas, have told Newsweek of unsanitary, overcrowded and restrictive conditions inside a tent complex with no natural light, limited medical care, and frequent confrontations with guards.
Three women detained at Camp East Montana, along with another who was recently deported from the site, gave accounts—via audio recordings and handwritten statements obtained by Newsweek—of life inside the facility between September 2025 and January 2026. Two said they hold green cards, giving them permanent residency in the United States.
The site located at an Army installation in Fort Bliss near El Paso currently the largest Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center, in terms of number of detainees, in the U.S., according to nonprofit analysts TRAC. It opened with capacity for 1,000 in August 2025, and has expanded to currently hold more than 2,700, TRAC data shows. Officials have said capacity could rise to 5,000.
Lugeidys Coronel, 24, told Newsweek poor sanitation left her with an ulcer in her intimate area. “Here they treat us like animals,” she said in a written statement in Spanish. Yajaira Porras Medina, 32, said hygiene supplies such as tampons were unavailable for days, mold was visible in showers, and guards verbally harassed detainees. Kommaly Keopatthavong, who has since been deported, said in a written statement that detainees had been left “super cold” and recalled one moment when detainees asked for more heat but instead a guard “turned up the air conditioner” to make it cooler.
Read more: https://www.newsweek.com/women-inside-america-largest-ice-detention-center-camp-east-montana-11428121
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