911 Calls Reveal Medical Crises and Neglect at Texas Immigration Detention Center
Audio from emergency calls shows detainees at Camp East Montana suffering serious medical issues while staff struggle to obtain proper care.
Camp East Montana, an immigration detention center in El Paso, Texas, began operating a month before a nurse reported a detainee who had ingested a foreign object and was in agonizing pain, urging emergency transport. Additional 911 calls reveal other urgent cases, such as a detainee with kidney stones whose family struggled to get care and a COVID-19 patient denied oxygen. The center, intended as a model for large-scale deportations, remains open despite allegations of inhumane conditions, which DHS officials call “categorically false.”
Between Dec. 2025 and Jan. 2026, three men died there, including a Cuban national whose death was ruled a homicide after a confrontation with guards over medication. Investigations uncovered over 160 emergency calls, showing systemic failures in addressing mental-health and medical emergencies. DHS maintains the facility provides comprehensive medical services and refers severe cases to local hospitals, but the released recordings suggest otherwise.
Why it matters
The calls expose possible systemic neglect of detainees' health in a federal immigration facility.
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