CNN
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The US Army base in El Paso, Texas – Fort Bliss – has been chosen as a place to detain and contain potentially thousands of migrants, and a contract has already been signed to begin construction of the base’s immigration facility, three defense officials told CNN.
The U.S. Army currently manages contracts to help build and maintain the Fort Bliss facility and has signed a contract to oversee El Paso’s Central Processing Center, officials said.
These contracts were originally awarded to private companies through US Customs Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Fort Bliss’ current plan is to build a facility that can accommodate as many as 5,000 immigrants, one defense official said.
“In regards to the construction of ice for the blissful facility, the Secretary of Defense has allowed the U.S. Army to envisage US Customs and border protection management and envisage US immigration and customs enforcement contracts to assist in the construction, maintenance and maintenance of facilities on the CBP El Paso Central Processing Center and Fort Bliss Army land,” he said.
The facility is on US military property, but Army officials do not protect them due to laws that prohibit military personnel from engaging in law enforcement activities. Propublica reported Friday that ICE awarded contracts to private companies to run immigration detention camps in Fort Bliss.
CNN previously reported that officials had been considering using US military bases instead of Guantanamo Bay to house migrants. There, migrants are regularly dispatched before the administration moves to its final destination.
It is unclear whether the Bliss Fort will be used in place of Guantanamo Bay or in addition to the naval base. Fort Bliss has previously been used to temporarily house immigrants, including a surge in unaccompanied immigrant children under the Biden administration.
Fort Bliss was also used to house thousands of Afghan citizens from Allies Welcome, an initiative launched under the Biden administration to support and resettle more than 11,000 Afghans after the US withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan in 2021.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration’s efforts to expel immigrants to Guantanamo have come across an important hurdle. The administration first took the unprecedented step of sending immigrants to Guantanamo Bay in February, sparking a fierce backlash from immigrant advocates and sues from immigrant advocates.
The administration had to suspend tents in the building last month for island immigrants.
The conditions of the Guantanamo Bay facility are under extensive scrutiny. Some detainees refused to eat, which led to weight loss, a US military officer who oversees Lt. Col. Robert Green’s task force responsible for detention work in Guantanamo Bay, said in court documents. Green also said the restraint chair was used six times on February 28th. Each time, it is for Venezuelan detainees who are engaged in self-harm.
By mid-March, the administration had already spent about $16 million on Guantanamo’s operations, according to Democrat Sarah Jacobs, who visited the base as part of a visit to the Congressional delegation.
“What we really saw was that there was a very low capacity there, and it was really expensive and we couldn’t see that there was no operational reason to use Guantanamo Bay for immigration detention,” Jacobs told CNN last month. “It was obvious because Donald Trump liked the optics.”
CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez contributed to this story.
