ICE Held El Paso Detainees an Average of 4.5 Days in a Tent Facility Meant for 72-Hour Stays, DHS Inspector General Finds

Detainees at a tent facility U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ran in El Paso, Texas, in 2025 were held an average of 108 hours, or 4.5 days, well past the 72-hour limit in the short-term standards ICE applied there, the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General said in a report dated Oct. 26.

The report, OIG-27-01, covers an unannounced inspection of the El Paso Enhanced Hardened Facility from July 15 to 17, 2025. U.S. Customs and Border Protection ran the site as a temporary processing center from January 2023 until it handed it to ICE on March 10, 2025. ICE removed all detainees and ended its contract on Aug. 27, 2025, according to the report.

How Long Detainees Were Held at the ICE El Paso Facility

Because ICE planned only short stays, it kept following CBP's 2015 transport and detention standards, known as TEDS, which the inspector general called "limited in scope" compared with ICE's long-term detention standards.

Inspectors reviewed 15,975 bookings from March 10 to Sept. 1, 2025. Of those, 6,951, or 44%, lasted more than 72 hours, and 17% lasted more than a week. One hundred bookings ran 29 days or longer, according to a table in the report.

The office also found 992 people booked in more than once and 268 cases where a detainee was booked back in a day or less after leaving. Some were returned when they could not board deportation or transfer flights, the report says. It said back-to-back short bookings "effectively constituted a continuous period of detention" beyond the 72-hour rule.

Detainees slept on floor mats with aluminized polyester blankets inside the reinforced tent, while long-term ICE facilities must issue a mattress, pillow and sheets, the report says. The site had no on-site medical care and mixed high- and low-risk detainees, which TEDS does not prohibit.

Unreported Force, Lost Property and Missed Showers

The inspector general found the facility did not comply with four TEDS areas. A June 15, 2025, incident was logged as a "disturbance," but video showed officers using force on detainees, so it should have been reported as a use of force, the report says. An ICE official had first said two use-of-force incidents occurred, then called one a disturbance.

Two detainees said their property, which the tracking system listed as including a phone and wallet, was lost, and inspectors found nothing on the designated shelf. In a sample of 10 detainees, staff could not show that five had showered within 72 hours. ICE staff said supply shortages "led to regularly denying detainees scheduled showers," according to the report.

Inspectors also found a refrigerator at 45 degrees holding boxes marked "Keep frozen," and said the kitchen had no electronic record of meal service and no system for religious or dietary restrictions before July 13, 2025.

ICE Objects to Recommendations

The office made six recommendations and closed them administratively because the facility no longer holds detainees, while reserving the option to reopen them if ICE resumes using it. In its written response, ICE neither agreed nor disagreed, calling the recommendations "overcome by events." It said it has no plans to house detainees there and objected that no DHS rule provides for reopening closed recommendations.

ICE also said it followed TEDS because the site's "intended mission, physical configuration, and length of stay remained consistent with temporary custody." The inspector general said publication was delayed by three government shutdowns in fiscal 2026 totaling 123 days.

Sources: U.S. Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, "Results of an Unannounced Inspection of ICE's El Paso Enhanced Hardened Facility in El Paso, Texas," OIG-27-01, Oct. 26, 2026 (PDF): https://www.oig.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/assets/2026-10/OIG-27-01-Oct26.pdf ; DHS OIG reports list: https://www.oig.dhs.gov/reports/audits-inspections-and-evaluations ; Cover photo: the facility's housing corridor, DHS Office of Inspector General photo from the report (public domain)