Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Wednesday released a report accusing the Army’s immigration detention camp at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, of beating, abusing and neglecting detained migrants.

The 84-page report titled “‘You’re Only Getting Out Deported or Dead’: Abusive U.S. Immigration Detention at Ft. Bliss” details how at the detention facility Camp East Montana, migrants “endured conditions of confinement that amounted to enforced disappearance, cruel, degrading and inhuman treatment, excessive use of force including one extrajudicial killing, life-threatening medical neglect, barriers to legal representation, and coercive third-country removals.”

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson denied the report’s findings, saying the claims of inhumane conditions were “categorically false.” They said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities are regularly audited and ensured to “comply with performance-based national detention standards.”

“No detainees are being beaten or abused,” the spokesperson said. “Ensuring the safety, security, and well-being of individuals in our custody is a top priority at ICE.”

The report’s authors spoke with 80 people, including 71 people who said they were detained at Camp East Montana between October 2025 and June.

More than 60 detainees said they were arrested even after they showed proper documentation proving they had legally entered the U.S., and that these arrests were carried out at times with excessive force. They said they felt like they were being “kidnapped” while being detained by federal immigration enforcement officers.

Some detainees in the facility said they saw masked guards clad in black entering the small pods that would fit 72 migrants. One man, Germán L., said if “one person speaks up for themselves, they take it out on all of us … just for insisting on getting your rights, food, or medicine when you don’t get it.”

Ricardo H., a Cuban national, said guards beat him after he was not given food for more than 20 hours before he finally asked for a meal. He said he kicked a metal door “out of desperation” before 15 officers rushed toward him. He was thrown to the ground.

“Six officers restrained me with my face down,” Ricardo H. said. “I still have severe pain in my ear and in my right collarbone. They also stomped on my neck. At 31 years old, I have never seen death until that day. I thought they were going to kill me.”

Both rights groups state in their report that migrants detained at Camp East Montana were denied access to legal counsel and described intense psychological distress over being detained without knowing where they were being taken to or why. Relatives of detainees said they could not find the names of their loved ones on any ICE databases.

The authors allege that these tactics amount to enforced disappearance.

“Enforced disappearance is a continuous violation that begins at the moment of deprivation of liberty and persists until the state acknowledges the detention and provides reliable information about the person’s whereabouts and legal status,” the report reads. “Throughout this period, both the disappeared person and their family are subjected to ongoing human rights violations.”

The report also details overcrowding and filthy conditions, with “bathrooms covered in feces and urine, and living quarters flooded with dirty water and dust.” Detainees developed infections and other health issues due to a lack of clean living spaces and basic hygiene supplies like soap, as well as inadequate ventilation.

A Honduran man, Ismael M., told the rights group that he experienced suicidal thoughts and depressive episodes due to his detention and the conditions described in the report.

“I sometimes look at my bed sheets, and I wonder if it would be easier to hang myself instead of trying to survive this torture,” he said. “I don’t know how to describe what I’m feeling. I feel forgotten. People have died here and no one cares. I’ve gone a month without seeing the sun.”

Angélica César, Aryeh Neier Fellow at Human Rights Watch and the ACLU, called Camp East Montana “a human rights disaster.”

“The US government should shut it down, conduct independent investigations into all abuses and deaths in custody, and put an end to mass deportations and mandatory immigration detention,” César said in an ACLU statement.