According to a newly published report by legal and human rights advocates, numerous individuals detained at a vast Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Texas allege that they were subjected to beatings by guards or that they witnessed such assaults being perpetrated against others.

The 84-page report, issued jointly on Wednesday by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union, further alleges that individuals detained at Camp East Montana—situated at the U.S. Army’s Fort Bliss in El Paso—recounted being deprived of requisite medical care, compelled to inhabit squalid conditions, and provided with inedible sustenance.

Detainees additionally asserted that they were obstructed from communicating with their legal counsel or family members.

According to the report, of the 71 detainees contacted over a five-month period, 64 — approximately 90% of those interviewed — reported that they had either personally experienced assault by staff or witnessed the physical abuse of others.

“ICE’s Camp East Montana constitutes a veritable catastrophe for human rights,” asserted Angélica César, a fellow at Human Rights Watch and the ACLU who served as the report’s lead researcher.

“The U.S. government ought to dismantle it, commission impartial investigations into every instance of abuse and death occurring in its custody, and terminate the practices of mass deportation and mandatory immigration detention.”

The Department of Homeland Security issued a statement asserting that allegations of inhumane conditions at its desert tent facility were “categorically false,” that no detainees were subjected to physical assault or mistreatment, and that “ICE takes seriously the health and safety of all those detained in our custody.”

The newly documented accounts of violence and deplorable living conditions within Camp East Montana corroborate earlier reports furnished by journalists and other sources.

Since the facility's inception in August, a minimum of three detainees held there have perished, including a 55-year-old Cuban migrant who, while handcuffed and restrained by guards earlier this year, ceased breathing.

A subsequent ruling by a local medical examiner classified the death as a homicide, while a federal report issued last month indicated that evidence pertaining to the case had been "missing or destroyed."

That report, produced by the Government Accountability Office, identified mismanagement within the Department of Homeland Security as having engendered unsafe conditions that contributed to detainee mortality and suffering, even as millions of dollars in squandered tax revenue enriched contractors.

In March, ICE replaced Acquisition Logistics, LLC, the prime contractor that had been awarded a contract last year valued at up to $1.3 billion to construct and administer the facility, originally designed to accommodate up to 5,000 individuals.

The Virginia-based company possessed no prior experience operating an ICE detention center, had never secured a federal contract exceeding $16 million, and lacked a functional website.

The transformation was precipitated by an internal ICE audit that identified 49 deficiencies—defined as violations of detention standards or policies—spanning domains such as the use of force, restraints, security protocols, and medical care.

Notwithstanding the change in contractors, interviews conducted by Human Rights Watch and the ACLU as recently as last month revealed that grave deficiencies at the camp have persisted.

According to the report, detainees recounted living conditions so degrading and inhumane that they included lavatories encrusted with excrement, inundated housing units, and a complete absence of soap or other basic hygiene provisions.

Furthermore, they reported being confined indoors for weeks, with no substantive access to recreation, sunlight, or fresh air.

Furthermore, informants recounted receiving provisions of compromised quality and erratic meal schedules, with intervals extending up to twelve hours between repasts.

The report recounts that detainees alleged guards subjected them to physical reprisals in response to hunger strikes, requests for medical attention, and complaints regarding detention conditions.

According to the report, several individuals stated that guards imposed collective punishment, striking or assaulting multiple detainees after accusing a single individual of violating regulations.

Researchers determined that personnel subjected individuals detained in the facility to coercion and duress, compelling them to relinquish their immigration claims and consent to removal to third countries when repatriation to their country of origin proved unfeasible.

The detainees alleged they were menaced with physical violence, criminal prosecution, and indefinite incarceration should they decline deportation.

In certain instances, the report concluded, the conditions of ICE detention could constitute enforced disappearances, thereby representing a potential contravention of international human rights law.

Human Rights Watch and the ACLU have called upon the Trump administration to shutter Camp East Montana and to permit independent inquiries into fatalities resulting from custodial restraint, the application of excessive force, medical negligence, and enforced disappearances.

“The abuses documented at Fort Bliss constitute the predictable corollary of the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda, its draconian expansion of immigration detention, and the systematic erosion of federal oversight mechanisms,” asserted César, the lead researcher.

“Individuals detained at Camp East Montana are human beings who merit treatment with dignity and protection from harm.”