Texas ICE facility spent $11.5 million, GAO finds

Key Points:

• A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report reveals serious issues at Camp East Montana, a large immigration detention facility at Fort Bliss, where three detainees have died in just over six months, including one death with missing or destroyed evidence.
• The camp was rushed open by ICE before construction was complete, lacking proper oversight, sanitary conditions, adequate medical care, and compliance with detention standards such as accessibility and security measures.
• The contractor, Acquisition Logistics, chosen despite no prior detention facility experience, failed to meet contract requirements, including inadequate tuberculosis screening, unsanitary conditions, and failure to prevent detainee escapes and firearm losses.
• Investigations into detainee deaths were hampered by missing evidence and procedural failures, with one death ruled a homicide due to asphyxia and another a suicide linked to insufficient monitoring and facility deficiencies.
• The report, requested by Congressional Democrats, has drawn condemnation from Senator Dick Durbin, who criticized the Trump administration's detention policies and highlighted the facility's dangerous and inhumane conditions.