Veterans Join ACLU and Local Leaders to Condemn Trump’s Plans for Nation’s Largest Immigration Detention Center at Fort Bliss

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 21, 2025

EL PASO, TX – This morning, Common Defense, the national membership organization of veterans and military families, stood side by side with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, Border Network for Human Rights, and other Texas partners at a press conference condemning Trump’s plan to turn Fort Bliss into the nation’s largest immigration detention center. The event followed Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s (TX-30) visit to the proposed detention site on Thursday morning.

As veterans and military family members, we know Fort Bliss as a place of service and sacrifice — not a prison camp. President Trump’s plan to convert this base into the largest immigration detention center in the country is a betrayal of our values, a misuse of resources, and a stain on our nation. Spending more than $1.26 billion to cage up to 5,000 people in tents, exposed to brutal heat and sandstorms, isn’t security — it’s cruelty. Veterans and military families stand united with our immigrant neighbors to say: Fort Bliss should never be weaponized against people seeking safety.

Common Defense’s Lead Texas Organizer and Air Force Veteran Britni Cuington issued the following statement:

“Military bases are meant to protect our freedoms, not cage human beings. The fact that ICE is detaining people at Fort Bliss is disgraceful and unacceptable. It puts active duty troops and veterans at risk of being targeted and stripped of the very benefits they sacrificed for and puts our soldiers in situations that they are not trained for. Common Defense is clear: there must be no ICE detention centers on military bases, ever.”

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Common Defense Civic Engagement is a grassroots, veteran-led organization (501c4) that was founded in 2016. We empower veterans to stand up for our communities against the rising tide of racism, hate, and violence, to organize against the entrenched powers that have rigged our economy, and to champion an equitable and representative democracy, where “liberty and justice” truly is for all. For too long, politicians from both political parties have attempted to use veterans as unwilling political props, and Common Defense serves as a home for veterans to organize and speak for themselves and support the candidates who truly share our values.