The U.S. government has approved a $1.26 billion contract to build a massive immigration detention facility at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. The site would detain up to 5,000 people in tents across the desert—making it the largest known immigrant detention center in U.S. history if built as planned.

This facility would be run by a private contractor with no confirmed experience managing detention centers. Advocates warn that mass tent camps in extreme heat are prone to dangerous conditions, including poor sanitation, overcrowding, and inadequate oversight. We’ve seen it before at Tornillo. We’re seeing it again in Florida’s so-called “Alligator Alcatraz.” Now, it’s coming to El Paso.

Most of those detained would be people seeking asylum or fleeing violence—not convicted criminals. Yet this project is designed to scale up the Trump administration’s plan to arrest and detain more than one million people per year. This is not about justice. It’s about mass incarceration on military land, funded by taxpayer dollars, with devastating consequences for human rights.

El Paso residents—and the rest of the country—must take a stand. We cannot allow our communities to become holding grounds for political cruelty. Fort Bliss should not be turned into a tent prison for families and vulnerable people.

Sign now to demand that Congress, the Department of Defense, and Texas leaders immediately block this project before it becomes a permanent stain on our state and our country.