Castro Accuses ICE of Deporting Families to Earthquake-Ravaged Venezuela

The congressman described a harrowing scene where families held at the Camp East Montana detention center in El Paso were woken in the middle of the night and transported toward Arizona, the first leg of a journey back to a disaster zone. While these families were returned to the facility, they remain in a state of constant uncertainty. Castro labeled the attempt both cruel and un-American, urging the Trump administration to halt all deportations to the country immediately.

Accountability at Camp East Montana

The detention center, operated by Amentum Services Inc., has faced intense scrutiny from civil rights organizations. The ACLU’s National Prison Project, which is currently suing federal agencies over conditions at the site, has characterized the camp as a human rights catastrophe. Kyle Virgien, a senior staff attorney for the project, noted that the facility has a documented history of safety violations and deaths, yet ICE has consistently avoided accountability for its management of the site. Castro, who toured the facility in May, warned that the nation will eventually look back on the treatment of these detainees, particularly children, with deep shame. Beyond the immediate deportations, advocates are renewing pressure on the White House to lift economic sanctions that they argue have crippled the Venezuelan economy and left the population uniquely vulnerable to the recent natural disaster.