USA / FORT BLISS / TEXAS

A Texas military base is to become America’s largest immigrant detention centre

August 2025: A facility that during World War II housed Japanese, German and Italian immigrants will become the United States’ largest migrant detention centre. The Fort Bliss facility, near El Paso, Texas, is being expanded to temporarily house thousands of undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers.

 

The Trump administration’s latest move to vastly expand detention space across the country will turn the base in El Paso, with more than one million acres and an airport, into a deportation hub with 5,000 beds, according to a US Department of Defence contract notice.

 

The news agency Bloomberg reported that the contract for Fort Bliss is worth $1.26 billion and was awarded to Virginia-based Acquisition Logistics Company through a special programme that directs federal dollars to small businesses. The Fort Bliss contract is by far the biggest ever for Acquisition Logistics. The company doesn’t appear to have any experience with detention.

 

This is not Fort Bliss’s first role in immigration enforcement. During World War II, it confined German, Italian, and Japanese immigrants. More recently, it housed unaccompanied migrant children in conditions so dire that whistleblowers described them as hellish. The new facility, though ostensibly for short-term adult detention, inherits this fraught legacy.

 

The American Civil Liberties Union has condemned the planned facility as part of a broader strategy of militarised immigration control. Local officials in El Paso passed a resolution opposing the facility, citing a lack of transparency and community consultation.

 

A spokesperson from the US federal agency Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said that ICE personnel would be responsible for the management and operational authority at the facility, and that the establishment of the centre was being carried out according to ICE detention standards.

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Sources: Bloomberg; ICE; American Civil Liberties Union

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USA / WASHINGTON, DC

President Trump intends to drive homeless people out of Washington DC

August 2025: He wants his capital back, US President Trump wrote on his Truth Social media platform on Sunday (10 August 2025). He demanded that homeless people be banned from Washington, DC. He cited a rise in crime in the city despite figures showing the opposite.

 

“The homeless must move away IMMEDIATELY,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Sunday. “We will give you shelter, but FAR away from the capital. Criminals don't have to move away. We will put you in jail, where you belong.” There is no more “MR: NICE GUY,” he continued. “We want our capital BACK.”

 

According to a US representative, the government is preparing to deploy hundreds of National Guard members to implement the plans. However, a final decision has not yet been made, the government representative told Reuters news agency.

 

The mayor of Washington, Democrat Muriel Bowser, rejected the president's account. “We are not seeing an increase in crime in the capital,” Bowser told MSNBC on Sunday.

 

Data from the city police also shows the opposite. According to this data, violent crime fell by 26 per cent in the first seven months of 2025 compared to the previous year. Overall, crime fell by seven per cent. There was indeed a serious rise in crime in 2023, Bowser said. ‘But it's not 2023 anymore.’ The US president's account is incorrect.

 

According to the Washington DC Community Partnership, there are some 3,800 single persons experiencing homelessness on any given night in the city of about 700,000. “Most of the individuals are in emergency shelters or transitional housing, rather than on the street.”

 

President Trump generally takes a hard line on homelessness. At the end of July, he signed an executive order to make it easier to forcibly admit people with mental illness or addiction problems to institutions. The decree describes homelessness primarily as a public safety issue rather than a social challenge.

 

Compared to other industrialised nations, the United States has a less developed social safety net. The social divide is wide. The number of homeless people in the country has risen significantly in recent years. Not only on the streets of Washington, but also in other major US cities, one sees many people with physical or mental illnesses.

 

Sources: Reuters, MSNBC, Tagesschau

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USA / IMMIGRANT DETENTION CENTRES

Report by US Senator alleges hundreds of cases of human rights abuses in immigrant detention centres

August 2025: In an investigation launched by US Senator Jon Ossoff* in January 2025, it is alleged that there is widespread abuse of people held in immigration detention centres across the US. The report says that the team carrying out the investigation had identified 510 credible reports of human rights abuse against people in immigration custody. Of these cases, 41 include allegations of physical or sexual abuse, as well as 18 alleged reports of mistreatment of children in custody, both US citizens and noncitizens, and 14 alleged reports of mistreatment of pregnant women.

 

The report cites a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official who anonymously reported to the Senator’s office seeing pregnant women sleeping on floors in overcrowded intake cells. It also stated that a pregnant detainee who spoke with Senator Ossoff’s staff described repeatedly requesting medical attention and being told to “just drink water” instead of getting a check-up.

 

The results of the investigation were first reported by US broadcaster NBC, which contacted the DHS. In response to NBC’s inquiries, a senior US government official told the broadcaster that any claims that people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were mistreated were false. According to the official, all detainees are provided with proper meals, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with lawyers and their family members.

 

In the report by Senator Ossoff, which has been seen by The Immigrant Times, its authors claim that they had received 73 credible reports concerning the mistreatment of female detainees, including pregnant women, and children in 13 US states. The highest number of incidents allegedly took place in Texas (29), Georgia (13) and California (12).

 

The investigation details some truly disturbing examples of alleged maltreatment, including that of a 10-year-old girl who was recovering from

 

access to necessary follow-up care and faced continued brain swelling and speech, and mobility difficulties.

 

For the investigation, Senator Ossoff’s staff said it interviewed dozens of people, including correctional workers, law enforcement officials, attorneys, doctors and nurses, as well as 46 immigration detainees and their families. Cases were also identified through a review of public reports and court records, as well as inspections of six immigration facilities in Texas and Georgia, the report states.

 

* Senator Jon Ossoff is a Democratic US Senator from Georgia, serving in Congress since January 2021. The report ‘The Abuse of Pregnant Women and Children in US Detentions’ was released by Senator Jon Ossoff on 30 July 2025. NBC first reported the findings on 5 August 2025.

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USA / IMMIGRATION

Most Americans still support Trump on immigration, but question the lack of due process

August 2025: Most Americans still support President Trump’s immigration policies, but also argue that the administration’s approach often smacks of cruelty. “The officers of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) seem to show little respect for the dignity of individuals. We have seen pictures of people treated like cattle.”

 

A recent survey by the Wall Street Journal found that 62 per cent of American adults said they were supportive of the administration’s goals to deport migrants who are in the country illegally. But despite the support, many respondents were against two approaches the administration has taken to facilitate Trump’s robust crackdown on illegal immigration: mass deportation without due process and deporting immigrants to jails in countries other than where they are from. Both approaches received 58 per cent opposition, the survey shows.

 

Just under 60 per cent of independents said the White House has gone too far in deporting migrants without granting them a hearing or sending them back without evidence that they are in the U.S. illegally.

 

On the other hand, Republican voters were strongly supportive of Trump’s immigration policies, with 90 per cent of them being fully on board. Just 11 per cent of Republicans said the administration has gone too far, according to the poll.

 

An earlier survey by pollsters Harris found that 60 per cent of voters supported Trump’s push to close the border. The survey showed 75 per cent of Americans were supportive of the administration’s push to deport migrants who are in the country without authorisation.

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