A bulldozer sits at a location known as Site Monitor at Fort Bliss, Texas, on April 10, 2025. (Rose L. Thayer/Stars and Stripes)
AUSTIN, Texas — Construction of a tent complex at Fort Bliss designed to house up to 5,000 migrants detained by immigration officials has begun at the El Paso installation with a goal of detaining people there in August.
Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, said Wednesday that construction was underway at the Army base and she was informed by the Pentagon that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials would like to begin housing up to 1,000 detained adults by next month.
The Army, which is responsible for managing the $1.24 billion contract for the ICE facility, awarded the job of building and operating the site to Virginia-based company Acquisition Logistics on July 18, according to the Pentagon. The contract runs through Sept. 30, 2027.
The Army and ICE declined to provide additional information about the contract or its projected timeline for operations.
Local news reports showed large white tents taking shape this week on the 60-acre area formerly known as Site Monitor, which sits behind a public transportation park-and-ride site on Montana Avenue. It is accessible through El Paso public roads without entering the gates of Fort Bliss.
Initially, the detention facility will open to about 1,000 single adults and add about 250 beds each week until it reaches 5,000, according to Escobar’s office.
Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement that the facility is part of the department’s push to expand detention capacity.
“This process does include housing detainees at certain military bases, including Fort Bliss,” she said.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth notified members of Congress earlier this month of a proposal to house detained migrants temporarily at Camp Atterbury in Indiana and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey. The Pentagon has not released further details of that plan.
Escobar, who represents Fort Bliss and El Paso, has expressed concern about housing immigration detainees at the west Texas base because the U.S. is not in an emergency immigration situation.
“There’s no reason to use a military installation. We are not in an emergency situation where we’re seeing an overwhelming number of people arriving at the border,” she said.
The facility is part of President Donald Trump’s larger plan to detain and deport people in the United States without authorization. The government has removed more than 111,000 people from the country this fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Immigration enforcement officials have said they need more detention space to be more aggressive with arrests.
Since Trump took office in January, the Defense Department has become increasingly involved in immigration and border operations, including working with Customs and Border Protection along the border with Mexico and providing security for federal agents making immigration-related arrests in California.
Fort Bliss also hosts troops deployed to the southwest border and has loaned its airfield to conduct deportation flights. The base is roughly 1,700 square miles that stretch into New Mexico and offers large swaths of open desert terrain.
It has been used in the past to house unaccompanied child migrants alone in the U.S. and in 2021 to support refugees who fled Afghanistan when the government collapsed and the U.S. military left the country.
