Civil rights coalition calls for immediate closure of camp, where more than 2,700 detainees are being held<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Officers at the large immigration detention camp located at the Fort Bliss army base in Texas<\/a> are allegedly mistreating detainees, with accusations including beatings, sexual abuse and clandestine deportations of non-Mexican nationals into Mexico, according to a coalition of local and national US civil rights organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a 19-page letter, addressed to senior government officials at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE<\/a>) agency and Fort Bliss military command, the coalition accuses officers at the immigration detention facility on the base, called Camp East Montana, of being \u201cin violation of agency policies and standards, as well as statutory and constitutional protections\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The advocates called for the immediate closure of the camp, where more than 2,700 detainees are being held in a complex of tents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn light of these abuses, we urge the end to detention of immigrants at Fort Bliss,\u201d said the letter signed by eight organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union, Humans Rights Watch, Estrella del Paso, the Texas Civil Rights Project and Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The letter<\/a> was addressed to ICE acting director Todd Lyons and others, and copied to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) office of inspector general and the Senate armed forces committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ICE officials in El Paso directed media inquiries to the DHS, which denied all the allegations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAny claim that there are \u2018inhumane\u2019 conditions at ICE detention centers are categorically false. No detainees are being beaten or abused,\u201d said the DHS assistant secretary, Tricia McLaughlin, in a written statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The letter relies on sworn testimony from over 45 detainees, some of them describing how masked agents told them to \u201cjump\u201d the barrier, or wall, on the US-Mexico border<\/a> to cross from the US into Mexico, under threat of imprisonment if they did not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the letter, ICE officers have been taking some non-Mexican nationals, specifically asylum seekers from Cuba and Guatemala, shackling them and transporting them an hour west from El Paso to the desert border crossing at Santa Teresa, New Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once at the border, detainees gave accounts to advocates of being met by masked officers, who allegedly ordered them to climb the border wall and cross into Mexico, bypassing all legal deportation proceedings and third-country agreements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe masked people sometimes beat on people to get them to jump the wall even if they don\u2019t want to,\u201d said \u201cEduardo\u201d, a Cuban detainee ordered to be deported and cited under the pseudonym in the letter. He alleged that officers told him if he did not cross to Mexico, he would be charged with federal crimes and sent to a prison in \u201cAfrica or El Salvador\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n McLaughlin warned that unauthorized border crossers face potential removal to various nations, not just their home countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf you break our laws and come to our country illegally, you could end up in any number of third countries,\u201d she said. \u201cOur message is clear: criminals are not welcome in the United States. These third-country agreements, which ensure due process under the US constitution, are essential to the safety of our homeland and the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n