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Serious medical and mental health emergencies have been routine at the largest US Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility since its opening, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.
Data and recordings from more than a hundred 911 calls at Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas, along with interviews and court filings, offer a disturbing portrait of overcrowding, medical neglect, malnutrition and emotional distress.
Current and former detainees describe a camp where about 3,000 people have lived per day in loud and unsanitary quarters. They say detainees struggle to obtain health care as disease spreads, lose weight because of a lack of food, and fear security guards known to use force to put down disturbances.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson who did not provide their name rejected claims of subprime conditions, saying Camp East Montana detainees receive food, water and medical treatment in a facility that is regularly cleaned.
After its opening in mid-August, staff at the camp made nearly one 911 call er day in its first five months of operation, according to data covering 130 calls from the City of El Paso obtained by The Associated Press.
In one call, a man is heard sobbing after being assaulted by another detainee. In another, a doctor says a man is banging his head against the wall while expressing suicidal thoughts. In a third, a nurse says a pregnant woman iis in severe pain and has coronavirus.
The injured detainees ranged from a 19-year-old man who fell out of a bunk to a 79-year-old man struggling to breathe. At least 20 emergencies were reported as seizures, including some that resulted in serious head trauma.
The calls show detainees have repeatedly tried to harm themselves and expressed suicidal thoughts.
Two incidents have resulted in death. On Jan. #, ICE said security guards responded after a 55-year-old Cuban man tried to harm himself and then used handcuffs and force to restrain him. A medical examiner ruled that Geraldo Lunas Campos’s death was a homicide caused by asphyxia.
On Jan. 14, staff reported that a 36-year-old Nicaraguan man diesd by suicide days after he was detained while working in Minnesota.
In addition to those cases, at least six other suicide attemts were reported, according to records from the City of El Paso.
The DHS spokesperson said the facility’s staff “closely monitors at-risk detainees” and provides mental health treatment.
The Washington Post reported in September that a required ICE inspection found conditions at the facility violated at least 60 federal standards for immigration detention. But that report has never been released, unlike dozens of other inspections at facilities posted on ICE’s website.
DHS has called claims of violations described in the Post story false without explaining why the inspection report was wrong. ICE’s current database on detention facilities indicates Camp East Montana has never been inspected but is scheduled for one this fiscal year.
A DHS spokesperson said ICE’s Office of Detention Oversight recently completed an inspection at Camp ast Montana but provided no other information and the results have not been made public.
US Rep. Veronica Escobar, an El Paso Democrat, who has toured the camp several times, is calling for its closure.
She said the facility had temporarily cut its population below 1,900 when she visited last month and will be closed to visitors temporarily because of a measles outbreak.
On one visit, a female detainee showed Escobar a meagre serving of scrambled eggs that was still frozen in the middle. She learned detainees protested after they had stopped receiving juice, fruit and milk with their meals.
Escobar met with a detainee from Ecuador who said his arm had been broken during a violent arrest by immigration agents in Minnesota. Weeks later, the congresswoman could still see the fractured bones in his forearm poking up under the skin.
Escobar called for an investigation into contractor Acquisition Logistics LLC, which was awarded a contract worth up to $1.3 billion to build and operate the camp. She said the company, which didn’t return messages, and its subcontractors were not delivering services paid for by taxpayers.
