Immigration
Trump’s plan to hold migrants at military bases begins taking shape

Fort Bliss is preparing to detain at least 1,000 undocumented immigrants starting this month on the Mexican border.

August 7, 2025 at 5:00


A military aircraft waits for migrants to board from a bus at Fort Bliss in El Paso, on Jan. 30, before deporting them to Guatemala. (Christian Chavez/AP)

By Maria Sacchetti, Dan Lamothe, David Nakamura and Douglas MacMillan

The Trump administration’s plan to install large-scale detention facilities on U.S. military bases is taking shape, with Fort Bliss preparing to detain at least 1,000 undocumented immigrants starting this month on the Mexican border, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said Wednesday.

The sprawling Army post in El Paso is expected to hold 5,000 people in tentlike facilities at full capacity, which would turn it into the largest detention facility in the United States for civil detainees. Last month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also approved the temporary use of Camp Atterbury in Indiana and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey to house several thousand migrants before they are deported.

Hegseth also green-lit a small expansion of detention beds at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Station in Cuba, said the officials, though the total number remains far lower than what the president had aspired for. ... Taken together, the bases are at the core of the Trump administration’s efforts to carry out rapid removals from the United States and a model for expanded Pentagon involvement in domestic deportation operations going forward. The plans would deepen Homeland Security’s footprint in the northern U.S., where detention centers are in short supply and state laws limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

“These facilities have been identified as strategic locations for detention, processing and removal operations by DHS,” Andrew Whitaker, executive secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, said in a June 10 letter to Defense officials requesting “immediate access” to the bases in Indiana, New Jersey and Guantánamo. He said the bases will be a “central hub” for a steady stream of removal operations in the interior. The letter was first published by NJ Spotlight News and confirmed by The Washington Post.

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