Fort Bliss (TX)

What was an internment camp to hold other races the U.S. despised (which was closed in November of 1942) is coming back to play. Fort Bliss was a military post in El Paso County, Texas, that also had a small internment facility that held enemy aliens of Japanese, German, and Italian descent.

This week, a Virginia company was awarded a $1.26 billion contract to construct the facility, according to multiple media reports. The Department of Defense allocated nearly $232 million to be paid by the U.S. Army up front for the detention center, which is expected to include 5,000 beds for migrants being held by ICE.

“After initial operating capacity is reached, the contractor will add more beds in increments of 250 beds a week, until a capacity of 3,000 beds is reached,” ICE said in an email in response to a Border Report inquiry. “ICE personnel will be responsible for the management and operational authority pertaining to Camp East Montana.”

Federal officials said the Fort Bliss facility will help reduce growing migrant populations in other detention centers along the border and elsewhere in the United States. As a processing center, it will refer migrants with final removal orders to ICE Air Operations for return flights to their countries. The agency emphasized the dual-purpose facility (detention, processing) will streamline the removal of foreign nationals found ineligible to remain in the country, which is one of the Trump administration’s priorities.

Mostly consisting of canvas tents, the soft-sided facility “offers everything a traditional detention facility offers, including access to legal representation and a law library, access to visitation, recreational space, medical treatment space and nutritionally balanced meals,” ICE told Border Report. “It also provides necessary accommodations for disabilities, diet, and religious beliefs.”

Unfortunately from the knowledge we have of Alligator Alcatraz, Fort Bliss will be managed under Cosplay Kristi Noem's DHS and racist-enforcing Tom Homan, we cannot trust that what the Border Report says will be properly provided.

One local official is vehemently opposed to the facility coming to the region. El Paso County Commissioner David Stout told NewsNation that he isn’t sure why the 5,000-bed ICE facility, which NewsNation sources say could open on a limited basis within the next few weeks, is being set up at U.S. Army base Fort Bliss in the first place.

“I have very, very many doubts about how people are going to be treated in these facilities,” Stout told NewsNation, adding, “I think we are going down the road to becoming a fascist country. I think it’s a very slippery slope, and the actions that are taking place at this point in time are comparable to this.”

The use of the military on newly designated National Defense Areas, and the return of Border Patrol agents to traditional duties has resulted in migrant apprehensions at the border reaching historic lows. The proliferation of new migrant holding facilities is sparking backlash from several advocacy groups. Organizations ranging from Vote Common Good to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on Wednesday planned to denounce alleged inhumane conditions at centers like the so-called Alligator Alcatraz in Florida and call for grassroots protests.