El Paso City Council votes to draft resolution calling for Camp East Montana closure
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- Camp East Montana, the immigration detention facility on Fort Bliss, as been operating for more than a year. Tuesday, El Paso City Council unanimously voted to draft a resolution calling for the facility's closure.
The 7-0 vote doesn't mean the facility will close; the council said it wants to see it shut down.
El Pasoans took to the podium during public comment, alleging poor conditions at the detention facility.
Gilbert Perez said he had the opportunity to visit a replica. He said the facility served half-cooked food with maggots. A civil rights staff attorney alleged the food made a detainee sick.
"The food makes him vomit because often the food comes spoiled ,and individuals are not able to stomach the food that is given. He says that 'I am a skeleton of the person that I was before detention,'" said Charlotte Weiss with the Texas Civil Rights Project.
City Representative Lily Limon shared quotes of how detainees described the camp. One called it a "graveyard of living people."
Three detainees have died at the facility. Civil rights attorneys are suing Camp East Montana over the alleged poor conditions.
City representatives said Camp East Montana posed a public health risk to El Paso and lacks transparency about where taxpayer dollars go.
"This is over $1 billion in this facility. The choices that they're making -- to not feed people, to not clothe them appropriately, to not give them basic toiletries -- those are choices when they have an over $1 billion budget. When we stay silent, we're complicit and we have to call out what is wrong," said City Rep. Josh Acevedo.
During the public comment period, one resident said the idea of a closure leaves unanswered questions.
Mary Holguin asked, "Where are they going to send these people, if they close it down?"
While a local city resolution can't immediately shut down a federal facility, the council said Tuesday's vote sends a strong message to the federal government.
ABC-7 has reached out to the federal government several times. Officials haven't accepted an interview about the facility's conditions, but Homeland Security said claims of inhumane conditions are false.
