The El Paso City Council unanimously voted on Tuesday to commission the drafting of a resolution calling for the closure of Camp East Montana, the largest immigration detention center in the United States, located on land at Fort Bliss military base.
The vote was seven to zero and was recorded in the municipal file 26-1195 with the result "Directed/Pass."
The municipal administrator and the city attorney have 30 days to prepare the final text, which will need to be returned to the Council for a later vote.
The measure does not imply the immediate closure of the center: as it is a federal facility, a municipal resolution does not have direct authority to shut it down, but the council members indicated that they seek to pressure Congress to utilize its budget allocations and put an end to the contracts that fund its operation.
The initiative was driven by council members Josh Acevedo and Lily Limón, who cited alleged violations of basic rights, medical negligence, excessive use of force, and lack of transparency regarding the allocation of public funds. "They have over 1 billion dollars in this center.
"The decisions they make—such as not feeding people, not providing them with adequate clothing, and not giving them basic hygiene items—are choices backed by a budget of over 1 billion. When we remain silent, we become accomplices," Acevedo stated.
El caso de Geraldo Lunas Campos y la situación en los centros de detención migratoria forman parte de un panorama más amplio. Sigue toda la actualidad sobre para mantenerte informado.
During the public comment, attorney Charlotte Weiss from the Texas Civil Rights Project read the testimony of a detainee: "The food makes them vomit because it frequently arrives spoiled, and people cannot tolerate it. They say they are a shadow of the person they were before detention."
Councilwoman Limón called on detainees who described the place as "a graveyard for living people." Three individuals have died at the center since it opened on August 1, 2025.
The most emblematic case is that of the Cuban Geraldo Lunas Campos, 55 years old, whose death was classified as a homicide by the El Paso County Medical Examiner's Office. Lunas Campos passed away on January 3, 2026, after being restrained by at least five guards; witnesses told the Associated Press that one of them applied pressure around his neck while he repeatedly stated that he could not breathe.
ICE had described the episode as an intervention to prevent an alleged suicide attempt, a version contradicted by the forensic report, which determined asphyxia due to compression of the neck and torso. The FBI opened a criminal investigation into the case, confirmed to Congress in April 2026, and in July the family filed a civil lawsuit against four guards and companies linked to the facility, claiming over a million dollars.
The other two deaths correspond to Francisco Gaspar-Andres in December 2025, and to Víctor Manuel Díaz in January 2026, all three occurring within a span of approximately six weeks. In March 2026, the Council itself had already requested a federal grand jury investigation into these deaths, and the ACLU filed a federal lawsuit in May seeking to halt the operations of the center.
A resident, Mary Holguin, raised an unanswered question during the public comment session: "Where are they going to send those people if they close it?"
The Department of Homeland Security firmly rejected the claims. "Radical politicians on the El Paso City Council will not stop us from arresting and detaining illegal immigrants who have no place in American communities."
"Our message remains: the Immigration and Customs Enforcement will not be halted," the agency stated in a press release, in which it also described the accusations as "false, repugnant, and irresponsible" and assured that all detainees receive three meals a day, drinking water, clothing, a bed, showers, and hygiene items.
The Council will need to vote on the final resolution within the next 30 days, which would be the most significant formal step taken by the municipal government of El Paso against the operation of Camp East Montana.
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