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In a letter calling to end immigration detention at Fort Bliss, interviews with 45 people report physical and sexual abuse, medical neglect, and intimidation to self-deport.

WASHINGTON 鈥� Human rights groups today sent a letter urging U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to end immigration detention at Camp East Montana, a massive tent camp at the Fort Bliss military base in El Paso, Texas. Advocates summarized in their letter accounts of horrific conditions, including beatings and sexual abuse by officers against detained immigrants, beatings and coercive threats to compel deportation to third countries, medical neglect, hunger and insufficient food, and denial of meaningful access to counsel, among other rights violations. The letter comes just weeks after Rep. Veronica Escobar warned that people detained at Ft. Bliss were given foul-tasting drinking water, rotten food, and inadequate healthcare. The letter follows months of interviews with more than 45 detained people at Ft. Bliss and is accompanied by 16 sworn declarations by immigrants detained at the facility. Numerous detained people told lawyers that officers have engaged in a widespread and unreasonable pattern and practice of excessive force, including the use of abusive sexual contact by officers when鈥痷tilizing鈥痜orce. One detained teenager using the pseudonym 鈥淪amuel鈥� told lawyers he was beaten by officers so severely he sustained injuries across his body, lost consciousness, and had to be taken to a hospital in an ambulance. The letter relays Samuel鈥檚 account that his right front tooth broke from the force of being slammed to the ground, and as Samuel鈥痑ttests, one officer鈥�鈥済rabbed my testicles and firmly crushed them,鈥� while another 鈥渇orced his fingers deep into my ears.鈥� Samuel went on to say that while he was feeling 鈥渄izzy鈥� and was 鈥渇ighting to remain conscious,鈥� an officer laughed at鈥疭amuel鈥痜or having a chipped tooth after being slammed to the ground and told Samuel鈥痟e was 鈥渓ike a little girl.鈥� Samuel said that weeks after the beating, damage to his left ear鈥痠s鈥痵o severe that he now has trouble hearing. In their letter, the groups also reiterate their calls to immediately halt deportations of people to third countries to which they have no genuine ties. Interviewees said that at Ft. Bliss, the prospect of such removals has taken on a particularly abusive character. People detained attested that officers at Ft. Bliss鈥痟ave beaten detained people and used the threat of violence, criminal charges, and imprisonment in attempts to coerce non-Mexican immigrants held at Ft. Bliss鈥痶o cross the border into the Mexican desert. Isaac, a Cuban immigrant held at Ft. Bliss, attested in a sworn declaration that officers told him that he was going to be deported to Mexico. Isaac told lawyers that, 鈥渢he guards hit my head鈥� and 鈥渟lammed it against the wall approximately ten times.鈥� He also said that officers grabbed and crushed his testicles between their fingers, and that soon after, officers handcuffed Isaac and approximately 20 other people, placed them on a bus, and drove them to the border, where they were informed they could get off the bus and cross into Mexico. Isaac added that officers told them 鈥淚f we don鈥檛 want to go to Mexico, then we would either be sent to a jail cell in El Salvador or Africa.鈥� Isaac is also using a pseudonym to protect his identity. The letter 鈥� which was signed by the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of New Mexico, ACLU of Texas, Estrella del Paso, Human Rights Watch, Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, New Mexico Immigrant Law Center, and Texas Civil Rights Project 鈥� also follows widespread media coverage detailing abusive conditions. In September 2025, a Washington Post report noted that a leaked internal ICE inspection found the Ft. Bliss facility violated over 60 federal detention standards in the first 50 days of its opening. The Trump administration hastily opened the sprawling tent camp in August 2025, despite warnings from members of Congress and advocates that the facility would be a humanitarian disaster. The facility is located on the military base formerly used to intern people of Japanese descent during World War II and currently holds over 2,700 people, making it the country鈥檚 largest immigration detention center. The full letter to ICE is available here: /documents/ice-letter-re-fort-bliss The declarations are available here: /documents/fort-bliss-declarations-december-2025

WASHINGTON 鈥� The Supreme Court today agreed to hear an appeal in a case challenging President Trump鈥檚 birthright citizenship executive order that seeks to deny U.S. citizenship to many babies born in the United States. The Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Trump v. Barbara. Courts have repeatedly blocked the administration from implementing the executive order, finding it violates the Constitution, over a century of Supreme Court precedent, and a longstanding federal statute. The Barbara case is a nationwide class action, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of New Hampshire, ACLU of Maine, ACLU of Massachusetts, Legal Defense Fund, Asian Law Caucus, and Democracy Defenders Fund on behalf of babies who would be subject to the executive order. This summer, the federal court in the Barbara case granted a preliminary injunction that protects birthright citizenship for all children born on U.S. soil. Birthright citizenship is the legal principle, guaranteed by the 14th Amendment, that every baby born in the United States is a U.S. citizen. The Trump administration鈥檚 order seeks to deny citizenship to children unless one of their parents is a U.S. citizen or has permanent immigration status, excluding children born to parents on temporary work, student, or other visas, or without immigration status at the time of birth. This assault on birthright citizenship flouts the Constitution鈥檚 dictates, longstanding Supreme Court precedent, a statute passed by Congress, and fundamental American values. 鈥淣o president can change the 14th Amendment鈥檚 fundamental promise of citizenship,鈥� said Cecillia Wang, ACLU national legal director. 鈥淔or over 150 years, it has been the law and our national tradition that everyone born on U.S. soil is a citizen from birth. The federal courts have unanimously held that President Trump鈥檚 executive order is contrary to the Constitution, a Supreme Court decision from 1898, and a law enacted by Congress. We look forward to putting this issue to rest once and for all in the Supreme Court this term.鈥� 鈥淭he Trump administration鈥檚 attempts to unilaterally rewrite the 14th Amendment 鈥� an essential Reconstruction-era measure that granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the U.S., including formerly enslaved people 鈥� will not stand,鈥� said Morenike Fajana, senior counsel at the Legal Defense Fund. 鈥淲e look forward to going before the Supreme Court to uphold the constitutional promise of citizenship for all babies born in America.鈥� 鈥淚t鈥檚 deeply troubling that we must waste precious judicial resources relitigating what has been settled constitutional law for over a century,鈥� said Aarti Kohli, executive director of Asian Law Caucus. 鈥淓very federal judge who has considered this executive order has found it unconstitutional. If implemented, this policy would force all parents 鈥� including U.S. citizens 鈥� to prove their immigration status just to get a birth certificate or Social Security number for their baby, inevitably leading to racial profiling based on names, appearance, or accent.鈥� 鈥淭he attack on the fundamental right of birthright citizenship is an attack on the 14th Amendment and our Constitution,鈥� said Tianna Mays, legal director for Democracy Defenders Fund. 鈥淲e are confident the court will affirm this basic right, which has stood for over a century. Millions of families across the country deserve and require that clarity and stability.鈥� 鈥淥ur Constitution and the more than a century of court decisions on this topic are overwhelmingly clear: no politician can decide who among those born in this country is worthy of citizenship. We will continue fighting this cruel executive order to ensure that every child born in the United States has their right to citizenship protected instead of being relegated to a permanent, multigenerational subclass of people born in the U.S. but who are denied full rights,鈥� said SangYeob Kim, director of the Immigrants鈥� Rights Project at the ACLU of New Hampshire. 鈥楾he 14th Amendment established birthright citizenship as a bedrock principle on which Congress and the Supreme Court, together with generations of Americans, have worked to build a modern, democratic, and pluralistic society. By creating an unlawful regime where some American babies are treated as second-class citizens based on their parentage, the Trump administration is taking a sledgehammer to the foundations of that society. The ACLU will not let that happen. The court should use this opportunity to reaffirm its century-old precedents and confirm, once and for all, that birthright citizenship is here to stay,鈥� said Carol Rose, executive director at the ACLU of Massachusetts. Additionally, these same legal groups brought another birthright citizenship lawsuit, which is on behalf of three organizations with members whose babies born on U.S. soil would be denied citizenship under the order: New Hampshire Indonesian Community Support, League of United Latin American Citizens, and Make the Road New York.