Congresswoman Escobar introduces Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- El Paso's Congresswoman Veronica Escobar is one of more than a hundred House Democrats who introduced the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act last week.
The legislation looks to put guardrails and oversight in place over immigration detention facilities and procedures in an effort to ensure civil and human rights are protected. That is according to a news released sent out by Congresswoman Escobar's office Tuesday.
Escobar singled out Camp East Montana, the tent facility constructed on Fort Bliss that opened in August 2025. Escobar, who has toured Camp East Montana, says she has seen firsthand the consequences of what she calls the "inhumane treatment" that allegedly happens in detention facilities.
“The Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act is an urgent and necessary step toward ending such abuse that’s central to the Trump administration," Congresswoman Escobar said.
If passed and signed, the act would repeal mandatory detention, prohibit the detention of families and children in family detention, create a presumption of release and impose a higher burden of proof to detain caregivers and vulnerable populations, phase out the use of private detention facilities over a three-year period, require DHS to establish civil detention standards, mandate the DHS Inspector General to conduct unannounced inspections, and require DHS to admit congressmen to detention facilities for unannounced inspections.
On Monday, the ACLU of Texas announced that its advocates, along with several other organizations, had sent a letter to ICE calling for an end to immigration detention at Camp East Montana. The organizations also claimed that beatings and sexual abuses had been perpetrated at Camp East Montana.
