() A Texas military installation is on track to become the largest Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in the nation for migrants facing deportation, but one local official is vehemently opposed to the facility coming to the region.

El Paso County Commissioner David Stout told that he isn’t sure why the 5,000-bed ICE facility, which sources say could open on a limited basis within the next few weeks, is being set up at U.S. Army base Fort Bliss in the first place.

Despite pledges by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to support President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement plans, Stout said Latino and Hispanic populations in El Paso are being hurt by federal immigration and enforcement efforts, including at Fort Bliss, which Stout referred to as a “concentration camp for migrants.”

“I have very, very many doubts about how people are going to be treated in these facilities,” Stout told , adding, “I think we are going down the road to becoming a fascist country. I think it’s a very slippery slope, and the actions that are taking place at this point in time are comparable to this.”

How is ‘Camp Bliss’ being paid for?

This week, a Virginia company was awarded a $1.26 billion contract to construct the facility, according to multiple media reports. The Department of Defense allocated nearly $232 million to be paid by the U.S. Army up front for the detention center, which is expected to include 5,000 beds for migrants being held by ICE.

The Department of Defense said it expects the ICE facility to be up and running by the end of September 2027.

But as ICE looks to add bed space for migrants facing deportation amid constraints to its current collection of migrant detention centers, sources within DHS told that a limited number of detainees could begin arriving over the next few weeks.

The expansion of ICE facilities, which was part of the funding package of more than $170 billion for immigration enforcement within President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill”, includes money for ICE to hire more officers. Another $45 billion in the bill has been allocated for migrant detention.

ICE provides incentives to join its ranks

The federal agency is offering $50,000 signing bonuses to hire more detention officers, with the Trump administration calling the hiring blitz “a mission to save America.”

“Do you want to deport criminal invaders from the United States? The newly passed Big Beautiful Bill provides extraordinary incentives for ICE hires,” Trump senior adviser Stephen Miller wrote on X, adding a list of benefits that included the signing bonus, the opportunity to work near new hires’ homes and health care and retirement benefits.

The hiring push is already attracting eager applicants.

Among them is 23-year-old Isaiah Moore, who told he isn’t concerned about being placed in a dangerous role amid reports of assaults on ICE officers increasing significantly in recent months. He said wanting to join ICE’s ranks goes beyond the benefits the federal agency is offering new hires.

“That’s a big reason why I want to sign up for ICE because I feel like you know, if you believe in the USA and where it’s headed, then I feel like you should fight for that,” Moore told .

However, not everyone is excited about the expansion of ICE detention centers, which has included the installation of a tent camp in Florida known as “Alligator Alcatraz”, which opened after just eight days of construction.

Since the facility opened in the Florida Everglades, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said she has spoken to five Republican governors about similar facilities opening in their states.

A spokesman for Abbott recently told that the Lone Star State is among those willing to help provide bed space. But the push to detain more migrants facing deportation has some concerned – including in El Paso.

previously reported that other concerns include whether Fort Bliss troops will be required to assist in the operations of the detention center and whether El Paso’s weather conditions will pose a problem for detainees.

But for Stout, the county commissioner, the center’s construction in Texas represents bigger problems than just the use of the Army base.

“It really is saddening and maddening to me that we typically have borne the brunt of the negative and anti-immigrant policies that have been put in place by our federal government,” Stout told .