Overview

• The Fort Bliss detention center opened with roughly 1,000 beds under a project budgeted at about $1.2 billion, with plans to expand capacity to as many as 5,000.
• Homeland Security publicly rejected comparisons to World War II internment camps, with a spokesperson calling them "deranged and lazy" and asserting ICE targets serious criminals.
• Independent TRAC data indicate about 70% of the approximately 59,380 people in ICE detention as of Aug. 10 had no criminal conviction, underscoring a core dispute over who is being detained.
• Japanese American organizations condemned the site choice, noting Fort Bliss operated as a WWII internment facility for Japanese, German and Italian civilians and warning of echoes from that period.
• Civil-rights advocates and local officials flagged oversight and contracting risks, citing Fort Bliss’s prior use as a child intake shelter marked by abuse allegations and concerns over private operators.