Reports from Camp East Montana: Beatings and Abuse at Immigrant Detention Center
· Telemundo McAllen (KTLM)
Dozens of individuals held at a large Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Texas claim they were beaten by guards or witnessed others being assaulted, according to a report released by legal and human rights activists. The 84-page report, jointly published on Wednesday by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union, also notes that men and women detained at Camp East Montana, located at the Fort Bliss military base in El Paso, reported being denied medical care, forced to live in unsanitary conditions, and given inedible food. Detainees also indicated they were prevented from communicating with their lawyers or family members. Of the 71 detainees contacted over a five-month period, 64—about 90% of those interviewed—said they had personally experienced abuse by staff or had seen others suffer physical mistreatment, according to the report. 'ICE's Camp East Montana is a human rights disaster,' said Angélica César, associate researcher for Human Rights Watch and the ACLU and one of the lead investigators of the report. 'The U.S. government should shut it down, conduct independent investigations into all abuses and deaths in custody, and end mass deportations and mandatory immigration detention.'
AI summary · Source: Telemundo McAllen (KTLM) →
