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People held at an ICE tent facility in El Paso stayed an average of 4.5 days, well past the 72-hour limit it operated under, the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general said in a report released Monday. Inspectors also found unreported force, lost property, and missed showers.

CBP ran the El Paso Enhanced Hardened Facility as a temporary processing site from January 2023 to February 2025. ICE took it over on March 10, 2025, and kept CBP’s short-term custody rules, which say people generally should not be held more than 72 hours.

Inspectors reviewed 15,975 bookings from March 10 to Sept. 1, 2025. Of those, 6,951, or 44 percent, ran past 72 hours. About 17 percent lasted more than a week, and 100 lasted 29 days or more. On the first day of the inspection, the site held 642 people.

Alarmingly, the numbers may _understate_ time in custody. The report found 992 people booked in more than once, and 268 cases where someone was booked out and back in within a day. Two short stays back to back could add up to more than 72 hours without counting as a violation.

The site was built for short stays. Detainees slept on floor mats under aluminized polyester blankets. Long-term ICE facilities must issue a mattress, pillow, sheets, and a blanket. The tent had no on-site medical care and housed high- and low-risk detainees together.

On June 15, 2025, staff recorded an incident as a “disturbance” with no mention of force. Video showed officers using force on at least one detainee pulled from a housing pod and on others inside it. The inspector general found it was an unreported use of force.

In another incident, facility records listed items such as a phone, wallet, and paperwork for two detainees. Staff could not find any of it. Both detainees had been booked out for flights more than once and booked back in when flight weight limits kept them off the planes.

Shower logs for 10 detainees could not show that five of them had showered within 72 hours. ICE staff said supply shortages, including frequent reliance on other facilities for supplies, led to detainees regularly being denied scheduled showers.

Until July 13, 2025, the facility had no system to track religious or dietary restrictions. Inspectors found a refrigerator at 45 degrees, above the 41 degrees the FDA recommends, holding boxes marked to be kept frozen at 0 degrees or below. The facility kept no electronic record of meals served.

The report made six recommendations. ICE neither agreed nor disagreed. It removed all detainees and ended its contract on Aug. 27, 2025, and said it has no plans to use the site again. The inspector general closed the recommendations but can reopen them if detainees return.

Read the full report (OIG-27-01): www.oig.dhs.gov/sites/defaul...