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ICE detention deaths are on a record pace. One Texas facility bears the brunt
Entrance to Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas.
Sergio Martínez-Beltrán/NPR
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Sergio Martínez-Beltrán/NPR
EL PASO, Texas — A long paved road, flanked by desert sand, leads to the big white tents usually housing some 3,000 immigrants with beds for up to 2,000 more.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, detention center is located on the grounds of the U.S. Army’s Fort Bliss military base and is known as Camp East Montana.
Opened in August 2025, it’s currently the largest immigrant detention center in the U.S. and one of the facilities with the most detainee deaths. Out of 25 people who died in ICE detention since October, 3 were at Camp East Montana.
Concerns are rising among immigration advocates, lawmakers and former detainees about the company that initially ran the detention center, Acquisition Logistics, which had never run a center before securing a $1.3 billion federal contract. Advocates and multiple members of Congress are calling for the facility to be shut down.
“When they say in the news that this is the worst facility in the country, they damn right,” said Owen Ramsingh, a man from the Netherlands who was detained at Camp East Montana for more than four months before being deported in February.
He called the living conditions, food, bathrooms, and treatment by the facility’s staff “horrible.”
Ramsingh said he saw detainees battling mental health crises due to being detained for long periods in large cells that could house up to 72 men. He says they were served small portions of food, and suffered in cramped quarters with foul excrement odor emanating from the bathrooms in the cells.
ICE inspectors in February found 49 violations to detention standards at the facility, including inadequate medical care and failure from staff to “accurately document required checks to prevent significant self-harm and suicide.”
More than 45 people interviewed by the ACLU at Camp East Montana “reveal alarming conditions of confinement and repeated instances of coercion, physical force, and threats against immigrants facing third-country deportations, in violation of agency policies and standards, as well as statutory and constitutional protections,” the civil liberties group said in its December letter to ICE.
Multiple detainee deaths raise big concerns
In December, Francisco Gaspar-Andres, a Guatemalan man, died of kidney failure after being hospitalized for two weeks, DHS said.
A month later, Cuban national Geraldo Luna Campos died while in detention. Initially, DHS said he died after experiencing “medical distress.” The agency said he had become “disruptive while in line for medication” and was placed in segregation.
However, an autopsy conducted by the El Paso County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled his death a homicide. The report said he died from “asphyxia due to neck and torso compression.” No one has been charged in his death.
A third death happened on Jan. 14, according to DHS. Victor Manuel Diaz, a national of Nicaragua died by suicide, DHS said in a statement.
But Diaz’s family do not believe that to be true.
“When we talked to Victor after he had been detained by ICE in Minnesota and brought to Camp East Montana at Fort Bliss Army Base in El Paso, we were not worried because Victor would just be returned to Nicaragua to us. It was a very brief call,” the family said in a statement to NPR. “Little did we know it was the last time we would ever hear his voice.”
Attorney Randall Kallinen holds a photo of the burial of Victor Manuel Diaz, a Nicaraguan man who died while in detention at Camp East Montana.
Sergio Martínez-Beltrán/NPR
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Sergio Martínez-Beltrán/NPR
The family’s attorney, Randall Kallinen, told reporters last month Diaz’s autopsy was performed by the Army’s medical examiner.
“It was said that he died in a room by himself, in a clinic room. And we haven’t received word of why he was in the clinic,” Kallinen said. “Because they’re not saying he he tried to commit suicide somewhere else and then went to the clinic room — they’re saying he was in the clinic. That’s what their story is.”
In a statement to NPR, the Department of Homeland Security said “When there are signs of a detainee self-harming, staff abides by strict prevention and intervention protocol to ensure the detainee’s health and wellbeing is protected.”
The agency said ICE conducts mental health intake screenings for detainees within 12 hours of their arrival to any detention facility.
Lack of nutrition, mental health crises
45-year-old Owen Ramsingh has lived in the U.S. since 1986, when he came to Omaha, Nebraska with his mother when he was just five years old.
When he was a teenager, Ramsingh was convicted of possession of crack cocaine. He served 25 months in prison, part of that time in a state penitentiary.
After his release, Ramsingh said he “changed my life around.” He worked in construction for 15 years, had kids, later worked in security and even started his own power washing business.
Ramsingh had been a permanent resident all of these years, and he renewed his green card multiple times over the years. He says he often visited the Netherlands without any issues. But in March 2025, when he returned from Europe, he was detained at the Chicago O’Hare Airport by immigration agents. He said they told him he was being detained due to his nearly three decades old conviction.
Ramsingh was eventually transferred to Camp East Montana.
He said he saw at least one detainee collapse.
“We were beating on the windows,” he said, adding he yelled at the guards, “‘You guys are killing us!’ And they just laughed at us.”
Talking from his father’s home in the Netherlands, after being deported in mid-March, Ramsingh told NPR he also heard guards betting on which detainee was going to die by suicide.
“This is so screwed up that you’re trying to bet on our lives, you know, with these other officers thinking this s- – – is funny,” Ramsingh said. For him it was personal — he told NPR he talked three detainees out of killing themselves.
Acquisition Logistics LLC, the private company in charge of the detention center when Ramsingh was there, did not respond to NPR’s questions about this incident or its past management of the facility. DHS said in a statement that the agency inherited the contract from the Department of War.
The agency pointed out Ramsingh’s past conviction as the reason for his removal. “A green card is a privilege, not a right, and under our nation’s laws, our government has the authority to revoke a green card if our laws are broken and abused,” DHS said.
A woman who was detained at Camp East Montana told NPR she lost 35 pounds in her months-long detention there. The woman asked NPR for anonymity because she fears retaliation from immigration authorities.
“It was a horrible experience,” the woman said.
She told NPR the food was often inedible, and that the portions provided were very small. Detainees had to ration their food by hiding fruits and crackers under their shirts.
She said most of the women in her pod had stomach issues “because nobody wanted to eat.” People would eat a tortilla with water to feel full because they didn’t want to eat the food, which the woman said tasted bad.
The woman said she had trouble sleeping. She told NPR when she or others would get sick, the medical staff would most of the time tell them to drink water and offer acetaminophen.
An inexperienced company
Public complaints surfaced soon after Camp East Montana was opened in August 2025.
Several measles and tuberculosis outbreaks sparked multiple lockdowns.
Imelda Maynard, the legal director of the immigration legal clinic Estrella de El Paso, told NPR her team has repeatedly encountered roadblocks since the opening of the facility.
“We’ve always run into hiccups here and there, but with this camp in particular, there’s been issues from the get go on just trying to establish baseline communication with people there,” Maynard said.
Advocates have placed much of the blame on Acquisition Logistics, LLC, A Virginia-based small company that secured a $1.3 billion contract with the federal government to run Camp East Montana. However, the company had never operated a detention facility before.
“At that facility … it really does feel like one side doesn’t know what the other side is doing and everyone’s just kind of doing their own thing,” Maynard said. “It doesn’t seem like there’s coordinated efforts, and I really feel like that’s a management problem, and I think that’s on the contractor side of things.”
DHS replaced Acquisition Logistics’ contract last month. The company did not reply to NPR’s request for comment.
A new, $453 million contract was given to Amentum Services, a company that was working as a subcontractor for Acquisition Logistics. Amentum Services didn’t respond to NPR’s request for comment.
“ICE is always looking at ways to improve our detention facilities to ensure we are providing the best care to illegal aliens in our custody,” a DHS official said.
DHS said in a statement Amentum Services has been a partner of ICE in managing Camp East Montana. The contract, the agency said, “will allow Camp East Montana to continue abiding by the highest detention standards WITH the ability to provide MORE medical care on-site. This contract also allows more on-site staff and a PRECISE quality assurance surveillance plan.”
The agency said ICE will have “even more oversight of the contractors at this facility,” although it didn’t provide details of what that entails.
“Far from closing, Camp East Montana is upgrading,” DHS said.
But immigrant rights activists and members of Congress have called for the facility to shut down.
Congresswoman Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, called Acquisition Logistics LLC’s contract and the complaints from the detainees “very troubling.”
“These people are playing with the taxpayer dollars of hardworking Americans,” Escobar, who has visited Camp East Montana multiple times, said. “It’s unacceptable.”
She wants the Department of Justice to investigate the contract issued to Acquisition Logistics LLC.
“It’s not enough to just switch contractors,” Escobar said. “Acquisition Logistics needs to be investigated.”
At her home in Stanton on Thursday, Leticia Rinker, 71, kept thinking she was smelling gas.
She repeatedly checked the burners on her stove. She threw away an old pan, thinking maybe she had burned some grease on it while cooking chicken that day.
Then, her head started hurting.
The smell was still in the air Friday morning when she went for a walk, she said.
“Now I know why I smelled it and why I got the headache,” Rinker said Friday night after evacuating her home while emergency crews frantically worked to stop a damaged chemical tank at GKN Aerospace in Garden Grove from exploding.
Rinker, who is retired, had a long career in the automotive industry. “I know smells,” she added.
Rinker was staying at the evacuation center at the Garden Grove Sports & Recreation Center, with her two pugs, Lulu and Daisy, and her daughter’s two cats, Cedric and Elvis.
She was walking Friday morning at around 11 a.m. when a neighbor called and told her she needed to get the pets and go.
Her daughter and son-in-law, who live with her, were on a trip out of state, so she spent most of the day in her car at the evacuation center with the pets. The evacuees, she said, were remarkably calm, and relief workers fed them “some delicious spaghetti.”
“Everybody’s very relaxed, just chilling, sitting down,” she said. “A lot of people have their dogs. It’s OK, you know? It’s not a chaos thing.”
Still, she said, she had no idea when she could go home and was upset she had not grabbed food for the pets because she did not think she would be gone so long.
“I’m just hanging out in my car,” she said from the evacuation site. “I see no sense in going anywhere and wasting my gas, as high as it is.”
Rinker said she had friends and neighbors who refused to leave.
Rinker has lived in Stanton, near the aerospace manufacturer, for three decades and said she had never experienced anything like this.
“All I need is for my house to explode,” she said sarcastically.
Then, with a sigh: “I’m trying not to think about it. I love my house.”
THE
OFFICE OF TH
DIRECTOR
*******
OF
NATIONAL
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Director of National Intelligence
May 22, 2026
The President
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear Mr. President,
I am deeply grateful for the trust you placed in me and for the opportunity to lead the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for the last year and a half.
Unfortunately, I must submit my resignation, effective June 30, 2026. My husband, Abraham, has recently been diagnosed with an extremely rare form of bone cancer. He faces major challenges in the coming weeks and months. At this time, I must step away from public service to be by his side and fully support him through this battle.
Abraham has been my rock throughout our eleven years of marriage — standing steadfast through my deployment to East Africa on a Joint Special Operations mission, multiple political campaigns, and now my service in this role. His strength and love have sustained me through every challenge. I cannot in good conscience ask him to face this fight alone while I continue in this demanding and time-consuming position.
While we have made significant progress at the ODNI — advancing unprecedented transparency and restoring integrity to the intelligence community — I recognize there is still important work to be done. I am fully committed to ensuring a smooth and thorough transition over the coming weeks so that you and your team experience no disruption in leadership or momentum.
Thank you for your understanding during this deeply personal and difficult time for our family. I will remain forever grateful to you and to the American people for the profound honor of serving our nation as DNI.
With love and aloha,
Tulsi Gabbul
Tulsi Gabbard
Director of National Intelligence
A customer pumps gas into his car at a Chevron station on May 4 in Los Angeles, Calif. Gas prices have surged to a 4-year high, as tensions in the Middle East continue. Gasoline in California is over $6 a gallon.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images North America
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Justin Sullivan/Getty Images North America
The national average for a gallon of gasoline is $4.55, according to AAA; that’s a four-year high, unwelcome news for drivers as the U.S. heads into one of the busiest travel weekends of the year.
AAA estimates a record 45 million Americans will travel this weekend, despite high prices for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.
Gasoline prices have been elevated since the start of the war in Iran, and there’s no sign of relief on the horizon. High prices are angering voters and straining household budgets.
In California, which has the highest gasoline prices in the nation, Gov. Gavin Newsom is openly feuding with the oil giant Chevron, discouraging Californians from filling up at its stations.
Chevron and the state have been in a tense relationship for years; Chevron moved its headquarters out of California in 2024 after complaining about state and local regulations, and is currently buying oil shipped through an offshore pipeline that California has attempted to keep shut down. In the latest salvos, Chevron has posted placards at California gas stations blaming state policies for the high prices, while Newsom’s office is telling Californians they can get cheaper gas at unbranded stations.
Californians, if you’re hitting the road this holiday weekend, be sure to AVOID Chevron.
Pro tip: unbranded gas comes from the same refineries, storage tanks, and pipelines, and it meets the same state standards to keep your engine running clean, even if it doesn’t have a fancy… pic.twitter.com/FMTnNHE0Bn
— Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) May 21, 2026
But where does all this leave drivers? Despite high prices, most Americans are unwilling, or unable, to give up on driving. Americans have been logging more miles since the war with Iran started, according to the analytics company Arity, which tracks driving habits.
What can you do to cut costs? We asked the experts for ideas.
Drive smoothly. Pay less
The key to getting the most miles out of each gallon is driving efficiently. That means smooth acceleration, soft braking and slowing down.
Underinflated tires, heavy boxes in the back seat and an unused ski or luggage rack on the top of the vehicle can also make it less fuel efficient.
Some high-performance vehicles require premium gasoline. But if it’s only recommended, you can skip it without damaging the car, according to Consumer Reports’ deputy auto editor, Jonathan Linkov. “All cars, except the most esoteric supercars or older cars, can run fine on regular,” said Linkov.
Are you considering going electric?
Data suggests that higher gasoline prices have many drivers at least thinking about giving up gas-powered cars altogether.
But the data on sales isn’t so clear-cut. New-EV sales are still depressed following the abrupt end of a $7,500 federal consumer tax credit last fall. It’s also tax refund season, which can push up car sales of all types, compared with the previous month. CarGurus reports that used-EV sales did seem to accelerate in the month of March, and Cox Automotive reports strong prices for used EVs at wholesale auction, noting that rising gas prices “may have positively influenced demand.” On the other hand, data from the sites iSeeCars.com showed no appreciable shift in used-EV sales.
It’s not surprising to see a rise in shoppers’ interest before a rise in actual sales, especially for a purchase as significant as a vehicle. “What consumers are viewing on the site tends to be an earlier indicator than sales,” says Kevin Roberts, the director of economic and market intelligence with CarGurus.
But analysts note that high gasoline prices do motivate shoppers to select for more fuel-efficient or entirely electric vehicles — if prices stay elevated for a long time.
An average driver can save $1,800 a year
The more you drive, the more you stand to save from switching to a battery-powered car, says Janelle London, the co-executive director of a nonprofit called Coltura, which advocates against gasoline. “Across the entire U.S., an average driver doing, say, 15,000 miles a year already is going to save $1,800 a year by switching to an electric car,” London says. “But if you’re talking about a big driver, somebody who does maybe 25,000 miles a year, they’re going to be saving on average $3,000 a year by making the switch.”
And as the cost of gas keeps rising, she says, “we’re seeing the savings just skyrocket up.”
Coltura has an online tool that car shoppers can use to estimate potential savings from going electric.
Those savings vary based not just on how much you drive but also on where you live, thanks to differences in the local prices of gasoline and electricity. Yale Climate Connections recently published a map comparing the price of charging with the price of gasoline, by looking at the cost of enough electricity to take you as far as 1 gallon goes in a similar gas car: In North Dakota, driving an EV is like paying less than a dollar a gallon, but in California it’s more like $2.70 a gallon.
Or you can crunch your personal numbers more precisely by comparing the cost per mile using your own electricity rates, local gasoline prices and the efficiency of the gas and electric vehicles you’re comparing. (The extremely lazy route? Multiply your home’s cost per kilowatt-hour for electricity by 10. That’s very roughly comparable to how many dollars per gallon you’d pay to fuel your car. The national average cost for home electricity is $0.17 right now, so, ballpark, that’s like paying $1.70 for gasoline.)
Consider factors beyond gasoline
If you’re thinking of switching to an EV to save money, there are other factors to weigh as well. Maintenance savings can also be substantial — electric vehicles need new tires and not much else. On the other hand, insurance can be pricey. You might also weigh nonfinancial factors, like how much you value the environmental benefits of an EV or the merits of a quiet ride.
Charging is also crucial. Can you charge at home, which is far more convenient and affordable than charging at stations? If so, will you need to install a dedicated, higher-speed charger, which comes with an installation cost, or can you get by with a standard outlet?
The more you drive and the larger your vehicle is, the more likely it is you’ll need to add a charger. The Environmental Protection Agency has a calculator that can help with that decision.
Could you get by without driving at all?
Another option, of course, is to pursue alternatives to driving.
But data compiled by the app Transit shows that ridership was steady for most of March and actually dropped slightly in the week ending April 4.
That’s no surprise, says Stephen Miller, the policy lead at Transit; the Easter holiday may have pulled ridership down, and gas prices have been elevated only for a few weeks. “Historically, people only make larger changes that show up as a significant shift from driving to public transit if the price of gas goes up — and stays up,” he says. Year over year, transit ridership continues to increase overall, although it has yet to fully recover from the collapse in public transit use at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jerick White, who lives in Houston, bought his first e-bike in March. There were several reasons explaining why he switched from a car to two wheels, but saving on gasoline was one of them. Between the cost of the car, maintenance and gas, he says, “it just became too unbearable, unmanageable and expensive.”
He hasn’t calculated exactly how much money he’s saving, but, he says, it’s “a lot of money for sure.” One important factor in his decision: White works from home now and lives close to a grocery store and other places where he needs to run errands. Biking around “is very, very reliable if you stay in a neighborhood and you work close by,” he says.
If getting an EV makes the most sense for people with the longest commutes, trading out of a car entirely is for the other end of the spectrum: people who don’t drive much or take a lot of short trips. Veo, the bike and scooter app, reports that its average trip length is 1.9 miles.
If it works for your lifestyle, White says, biking has benefits in addition to savings on gas. “I feel like a kid again when I’m riding it,” he says. “It’s very enjoyable.” And: “Oh, my goodness, I can avoid the traffic.”
Spend more on fuel by cutting more elsewhere
Finally, some folks are willing to spend more at the pump — but cut back elsewhere. High fuel prices were not enough to stop Julie and Vince Rossi from taking their first cross-country road trip in their new recreational vehicle. They sold their house to live in a 22,000-pound RV full time and went on their longest road trip yet, driving from Arizona to Virginia.
Diesel costs even more than gasoline — and its price has gone up faster since the war started — so to afford their now-doubled fuel budget, they’re skipping the museums and amusement parks for free attractions. “If we want to continue on this lifestyle, we either look for the lowest prices or we need to cut spending somewhere else,” Julie Rossi says.
A previous version of this story ran on April 7, 2026.
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