Minnesota Detainees Trapped in Texas Tent Camps Face "Inhumane" Conditions and Legal Limbo

Approximately 530 people detained during federal immigration raids in Minnesota remain locked up in Texas detention facilities as of early March, trapped in what attorneys and lawmakers describe as a deliberate strategy to isolate detainees from legal representation and due process.

The detainees are among roughly 3,400 people arrested in Minnesota during Operation Metro Surge and rapidly transferred out of state—often within hours of their arrests. About 80% were sent to Texas, with the majority ending up at Camp East Montana, a sprawling tent facility at Fort Bliss army base in El Paso that has become the nation's largest federal immigration detention center.

"Horrifying" Conditions in Tent Camps

U.S. Rep. Kelly Morrison, a Minnesota Democrat, made an unannounced visit to Camp East Montana on March 23 and described what she found as "inhumane beyond words."

The facility consists of five massive tents designed to hold 5,000 people total. Each tent contains a long central hallway with locked doors on either side. Behind each door sits a "pod" crammed with 60 to 70 people on metal beds.

"This is where people stay all day, every day and all night," Morrison told Sahan Journal.

Morrison has received multiple reports of pregnant women denied prenatal care, diabetics going without medication, and detainees lacking access to basic necessities like adequate food. Four of her constituents have been held there since January, despite facility officials claiming their goal is to process people within two weeks.

Twin Cities immigration attorney Kira Kelley said her clients at Camp East Montana described food similar to "dog food." One client with a peanut allergy went days without eating. All reported crowded, unsanitary conditions.

"Every single one of them had their own horror stories of what they lived through in that facility," Kelley said.

Death in Custody Raises Questions

Victor Manuel Díaz, 36, died on January 14 at Camp East Montana after being detained in Coon Rapids. The government reported his death as a suicide, but his mother and brother have expressed serious doubts about that conclusion.

Díaz left behind two sons, ages 10 and 15, his mother, and five siblings in Nicaragua.

"The pain is very great," said his mother, María del Rosario Díaz García. "Whenever someone who is close to you dies, you feel a lot of pain. But especially in this case, it was my son."

Legal Access Deliberately Obstructed

The rapid out-of-state transfers have created massive barriers to legal representation. Minnesota attorneys aren't authorized to practice in Texas courts, leaving detainees scrambling to find new lawyers in an unfamiliar jurisdiction.

Attorney Brendan McBride represents a 28-year-old Crystal man who has lived in the United States since age six. The man was arrested on January 17 while working at a restaurant and transported to El Paso within an hour. He's married with a 3-year-old U.S. citizen daughter and has no criminal history.

A Texas federal judge denied McBride's request for his client's release.

"He's in one of those tents with the dust storms and the filthy latrines," McBride said. "He could be in there for several years."

McBride filed 21 federal habeas petitions for Minnesota clients transported to Texas, requesting their release from custody. Only a handful have been successful. Three of his clients remain detained.

"There's a lot of people that we probably aren't going to be able to help," McBride said. "Some of them are stuck with judges that are not going to let them go, and there's just so many it's going to take a long time to go through all of them."

Kelley filed 61 habeas petitions, mostly for clients in Texas. She said families are still calling, desperate for help, but many detainees never learned that Minnesota attorneys were trying to reach them.

"There were just so many people that were sent to Texas that we just couldn't—they didn't know we existed," Kelley said.

Children Caught in the Sweep

The Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas, designed for families, received 63 Minnesota detainees. The facility gained international attention in January when 5-year-old Liam Ramos and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, were detained there after being arrested in Columbia Heights.

A photo of Ramos wearing his blue knit hat with bunny ears went viral on social media, turning him into a national symbol for children swept up in Trump's deportation machine.

The Numbers

According to data from the Deportation Data Project—gathered through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit—approximately 3,400 people detained in Minnesota between December 1, 2025 and March 11, 2026 were transferred to facilities in Texas.

As of early March, 408 Minnesota detainees remain held at three El Paso facilities: Camp East Montana, El Paso Service Processing Center, and El Paso County Detention Center. Another 122 are scattered across other Texas detention centers.

Camp East Montana alone held 3,061 Minnesota detainees at its peak in January. The population has since dropped to about 1,500, but hundreds remain in legal limbo with no clear path to release or deportation proceedings.

The systematic transfer of detainees across the country appears designed to accomplish what the law couldn't: making it nearly impossible for people to mount an effective legal defense while trapped in overcrowded, unsanitary facilities far from their families, communities, and attorneys.