BEFORE IT OPENED in August last year, Camp Montana was described by one US official as offering “everything a traditional detention facility offers”.

According to Tricia McLaughlin of the Department of Homeland Security, people detained at Camp Montana – for the crime of living in the US irregularly – would be able to access legal representation, receive visitors, avail of recreational space, get medical treatment and have nutritionally balanced meals.

The same press release, quoted by multiple news outlets, also claimed that the facility would help the Trump administration work at “turbo speed” to enforce deportations from the US.

Six months later, reports about Camp Montana paint a bleak picture of the conditions faced by people who are sent there while waiting for their cases to be resolved.

The $1.2bn facility, located in the desert near Fort Bliss in Texas, made headlines this week because Seamus Culleton is among those who are detained there.

Culleton was arrested by ICE agents in early September and is now awaiting deportation, after US officials say he overstayed his visa in the country.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Liveline programme earlier this week, the Kilkenny man said he is living with 72 other people in a tent in the facility, which he described as “a nightmare”.

“We’re often without hygiene products. We’re often without shampoo and soap. The showers are filthy, the toilets are filthy. Infection, disease and sickness is right here,” he said.

“Everybody’s sick. There’s Covid in every pod. There’s influenza in every pod. It’s just horrible, horrible, horrible place.”

Camp Montana began holding detainees last August, and is expected to become the largest such facility in the US when it’s completed by September of next year, when it is expected to have an official capacity of 5,000 people.

Reports suggest that the average daily population at the end of last year was already over 2,000 people, some of whom are already in poor health.

The Texas Tribune reported last week that there have been two cases of tuberculosis and 18 cases of Covid-19 at the centre, though these have not been confirmed by government officials.

More starkly, the facility has come under more scrutiny after three people died there since December, including Cuban Geraldo Lunas Campos in January.

Lunas Campos’ death was initially reported by ICE as being down to “medical distress”, before the agency told the Associated Press around a week later that he died by suicide despite attempts by staff to save him.

An autopsy report by the El Paso Medical Examiner later ruled that Lunas Campos’ death was a homicide. The case is still being internally investigated.

These conditions have prompted waves of criticism from human rights groups and politicians, on top of those from inmates like Culleton.

The American Immigration Council accused ICE of systemic failure, saying information it is legally required to disclose about deaths of detainees are often “late and have little information”.

Earlier this month, local congresswoman Veronica Escobar hit out at the centre for “warehousing immigrants in inhumane conditions with little oversight and no accountability”.

And the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) described the situation as an “unfolding humanitarian crisis” that could spread across the country to other ICE detention centres.

In December, human rights groups sent a letter to ICE outlining accounts of “violent assaults and sexual abuse” by officers at Camp Montana, with further allegations based on interviews with over 45 immigrants.

The letter also alleged other forms of intimidation against immigrants, pressuring them into self-deporting or agreeing to travel to “third countries where they have no ties”.

Labour TD Duncan Smith told The Journal that given such reports, details that were reported this week about Culleton’s past should have no bearing on how the government responds to his situation.

“The key issue here is the horrific conditions with which Seamus and indeed thousands of others are being held in these ICE detention centres,” he said.

“They’re subhuman, and nobody deserves that.”

Contains reporting from Jane Matthews.