by Bethany Blankley
Fort Bliss Army Base in El Paso will be housing a 5,000-bed detention facility to support U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation efforts.
The Department of Defense announced that it had awarded nearly $232 million to Virginia-based Acquisition Logistics LLC “to establish and operate a 5,000 capacity, single adult, short-term detention facility” for ICE deportation efforts to support a Jan. 29 executive order issued by President Donald Trump. The order declared an invasion at the southwest border and directed federal agencies, including the Department of Defense, to take a series of actions.
“Fiscal 2025 operation and maintenance, Army funds in the amount of $231,878,229 were obligated at the time of the award. Army Field Directorate Office, Fort Sam Houston, Texas, is the contracting activity,” it states in an announcement listing a series of awarded contracts. An estimated completion date is set for Sept. 30, 2027.
The facility would be the largest in the country with a total contract exceeding $1.26 billion, Bloomberg News reported.
The facility’s construction is a reversal of Biden administration construction of “soft-sided facilities” (SSFs) to house and process millions of illegal border crossers into the country. Under the Trump administration, as border security efforts were implemented, these facilities were closed and U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Border Patrol officers were returned to the field to perform their statutory duties of border security.
SSFs in Texas and Arizona (Donna, North Eagle Pass and Laredo, Texas; Yuma and Tucson in Arizona), which processed record numbers of illegal border crossers into the U.S., were closed within two months of Trump coming into office, The Center Square reported. SSFs in San Diego, Calif., and El Paso, weren’t far behind.
“By ending reliance on Soft-Sided Facilities, USBP is avoiding over $45 million per month in costs,” Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks said. “With a dramatic drop in illegal traffic, the tents are no longer needed. This milestone marks significant progress in operational efficiency and cost savings for the American people,” The Center Square reported.
The SSF being constructed at Fort Bliss is part of the military’s expanded role in federal deportation efforts under Trump, The Center Square reported. In January, Trump directed the Department of Defense and U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) to devise a plan to oversee border security and strategic planning to implement territorial integrity of U.S. borders, surged U.S. Coast Guard resources nationwide and deployed an initial 1,500 troops to the southwest border.
By February, Coast Guard crews were assisting with deportation flights in California and Texas and military flights were transporting violent criminals, including Venezuelan gang members, to Guantanamo Bay.
By March, more than 10,000 troops had been deployed to the southwest border. By April, border wall construction had expanded in multiple locations from Texas to California.
By June, the DOD had sent an additional 700 troops to Texas and Florida to assist with ICE deportation efforts and implemented a program to enable outgoing DOD service personnel to transition to federal border security roles.
The DOD also established and expanded National Defense Area (NDA) operations in New Mexico and in the El Paso and Rio Grande Valley regions of Texas. In West Texas, the NDA spans approximately 63 miles of a US-Mexico land border between El Paso and Fort Hancock and operates under the jurisdiction of Fort Bliss, The Center Square reported.
Under the first Trump administration, Fort Bliss housed SSFs to assist with ICE deportation efforts in 2018. Under the Biden administration, in 2021, the base housed SSFs used to house roughly 10,000 Afghans who were largely unvetted and released into the country after the Biden administration’s deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan. In 2021, a female soldier stationed at Fort Bliss who participated in Operation Allies Welcome reported being assaulted by a group of Afghan men relocated to the U.S., The Center Square reported.
Within two years of the Afghan resettlement program, Afghans housed at military bases in six states had caused more than $535 million in damages, The Center Square reported.
Among those released into the U.S., 55 were identified on the terrorist watchlist and one “conspired and attempted to provide material support to ISIS and obtained firearms and ammunition to conduct a violent attack on U.S. soil in the name of ISIS on election day 2024,” a recent FBI audit found.
Ongoing deportation efforts continue as the illegal border crossings dropped to their lowest levels in June in recorded history, The Center Square reported.
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Bethany Blankley is a contributor to The Center Square.
The post Fort Bliss Army Base to House 5,000-Bed ICE Detention Facility first appeared on The Arizona Sun Times.