A 31-year-old Cuban reported that he was beaten by a group of guards at the Camp East Montana detention center, located at the Fort Bliss military base in El Paso, Texas, after spending more than 20 hours without receiving food and demanding meals by banging on a metal door.
Ricardo H.'s testimony is part of the report "You're Only Getting Out Deported or Dead: Abusive Immigration Detention at Fort Bliss", published this week by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which documents alleged abuses at the largest immigration detention center in the United States.
According to the report, after kicking the door to demand food, about 15 agents burst into the area where he was being detained.
"Six agents held me down face first. I still have intense pain in my ear and right collarbone. They also stomped on my neck. At 31 years old, I had never seen death until that day. I thought they were going to kill me," recounted the Cuban.
A pattern of alleged abuses
The report, consisting of 84 pages, is based on interviews conducted with 80 people, of whom 71 were consulted while they were detained at Camp East Montana between October 2025 and June 2026.
Researchers argue that the assaults are not isolated incidents but part of a pattern of punishments against detainees.
According to the collected testimonies, agents dressed in black, with their faces covered and no visible identification, raided modules housing 72 people to suppress hunger strikes, protests over the lack of medical attention, or grievances related to conditions of confinement.
"If a person raises their voice to defend themselves, they take it out on all of us... simply for insisting that our rights are respected or that we are provided with food and medicine," declared another detainee identified as Germán L.
Reports of disappearances and unsanitary conditions
Human Rights Watch and the ACLU assert that over 60 interviewees reported being detained despite having documentation confirming their legal status in the United States.
Several described their arrest as a forced disappearance, reporting that they were transferred by hooded agents between different detention centers without being able to communicate with family members or lawyers and without appearing in the public records of ICE during that period.
The report also denounces degrading detention conditions, including toilets covered in feces and urine, cells flooded with sewage, lack of soap, insufficient ventilation, and very limited access to the outside.
A Cuban died in custody
Among the documented cases is that of the Cuban Gerardo Lunas Campos, 55 years old, who passed away on January 3, 2026, while being held at Fort Bliss.
According to the report, the autopsy conducted by the El Paso County coroner determined that the cause of death was asphyxiation due to compression of the neck and torso, leading to the case being classified as homicide.
The FBI is conducting an ongoing investigation and the family of the deceased has filed a civil lawsuit seeking damages of over a million dollars.
The document also claims that Cuban and Venezuelan migrants were pressured to accept deportations to Mexico while they still had pending immigration proceedings.
The DHS rejects the accusations
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) denied the findings of the report and asserted that the allegations are "categorically false."
"No detainee is being beaten or mistreated. Ensuring the safety and well-being of individuals in our custody is an absolute priority for ICE," a spokesperson stated.
For her part, Angélica César, a researcher at Human Rights Watch and the ACLU, stated that the documented events reflect structural problems within the immigration detention system.
"The individuals detained at Camp East Montana are human beings who deserve to be treated with dignity and protected from any harm," he stated.
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