One year after Camp East Montana opened at Fort Bliss in Texas, activists in El Paso have created an immersive exhibit designed to show the public what life inside the largest immigration detention center in the U.S. is really like.
The exhibit, called “365 Days of Camp East Montana,” was designed by people who were detained at the facility. It features a replica of the canvas tents used to house detainees, complete with the harsh fluorescent lighting that never turns off, exposed toilets beside bunk beds without railings, rubber flooring, and the persistent hum of air conditioning.
Maria Aguilar, who spent five months in ICE custody at Camp East Montana, said she thought she had overcome the trauma of her detention — until she walked through the replica. “I felt sadness, anxiety, depression, anguish and desperation again for not knowing about our families, for not knowing when we were going to get out of that confinement,” she told Noticias Telemundo.
“I saw it as a cage, as if they had us locked up like animals,” Aguilar said.
A Window Into Detention
The exhibit is a radical journey into confinement, told through testimonials from people who were detained at the Texas facility. Their stories are displayed on posters hung on the tent walls. But visitors say what strikes them most is the physical recreation of detention: the fluorescent lights that never go off, the exposed toilets, the rubber floor, the dust that fills everything.
Ivonne Díaz, an advocacy strategist with the ACLU of Texas and one of the creators of the installation, said the first time she walked through after it was finished, she read every story and couldn’t do anything but cry. “I am DACA, and I too could be in that place. They are very inhumane conditions,” she said.
According to Díaz, more than 125 people visited the installation in its first week. Most people last 15 to 20 minutes before leaving, often in tears. “It’s a very intense experience. Many people come out crying,” she said.
A Year and Three Deaths
Camp East Montana opened in August 2025 inside Fort Bliss, the Army base in El Paso. It has a capacity of 5,000 people and has housed around 2,000 detainees per day, according to ICE data.
Three immigrants have died at the facility: Francisco Gaspar-Andrés of Guatemala, Geraldo Lunas Campos of Cuba, and Víctor Manuel Díaz of Nicaragua. The El Paso County medical examiner classified Lunas Campos’s death as a homicide by asphyxia.
The Washington Post revealed that in its first 50 days, the camp violated at least 60 federal standards. An inspection by ICE’s own Office of Detention Oversight in February documented 49 deficiencies in use of force, security, and medical care. There have been outbreaks of measles, COVID, and tuberculosis.
In July, Human Rights Watch and the ACLU published an 84-page report based on interviews with 71 detainees. Sixty-four said they had been beaten or had witnessed someone being beaten. Of those interviewed, 90% reported either personally being assaulted by staff or seeing others physically abused.
“ICE’s Camp East Montana is a human rights disaster,” said Angélica César, a fellow at Human Rights Watch and the ACLU who was a lead researcher for the report. “The U.S. government should shut it down, conduct independent investigations into all abuses and deaths in custody, and put an end to mass deportations and mandatory immigration detention”.
The Bottom Line
An immersive exhibit in El Paso, Texas, recreates the experience of detention at Camp East Montana, the largest immigration detention center in the U.S. The exhibit was designed by former detainees to show the public what life inside the facility is like. A federal watchdog report found severe violations at the facility, including wasted funds and endangered detainee health. At least three people have died in custody there. A joint Human Rights Watch and ACLU report found that 90% of detainees interviewed reported beatings or witnessed physical abuse.
