HRW/ACLU 84-Page Report: Fort Bliss Guards Bet on Which Detainee Would Die Next

An 84-page Human Rights Watch and ACLU report released July 15, 2026 documents systematic abuse at Fort Bliss’s Camp East Montana, the largest US immigration detention facility. Guards in unmarked black tactical uniforms entered pods in groups of 15-20 to beat detainees; witnesses told investigators guards bet on which detainee would die next. The facility has logged 49 regulatory violations, flooded cells, detainees held indoors for weeks, and a complete lack of hygiene supplies — even as ICE extended contractor Amentum’s no-bid contract through 2027 for $1.2 billion.

The report’s central death case is the January 3, 2026 killing of Gerardo Lunas Campos, ruled a homicide by the El Paso County Medical Examiner and now under criminal investigation (2026-01-21–lunas-campos-el-paso-medical-examiner-rules-homicide-ice-camp-east-montana); his family’s wrongful-death petition names Amentum’s predecessor contractor Acquisition Logistics (2026-01-20–lunas-campos-family-files-rule-27-petition-western-district-texas). The guard-betting testimony is new and distinct from the facility’s earlier-documented mental-health-crisis death (2026-07-03–propublica-camp-east-montana-mental-health-crisis-death) and GAO’s wasted-millions finding (2026-06-19–ice-megajail-program-retreats-gao-finds-camp-east-montana-wasted-millions). Camp East Montana’s contractor churn — from Acquisition Logistics to Amentum’s no-bid award (2026-03-11–amentum-services-no-bid-contract-camp-east-montana) — has occurred without any accountability mechanism catching up to the facility’s death rate.