GAO Report Highlights Mismanagement and Safety Failures at Texas ICE Detention Camp

A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released Tuesday identified serious mismanagement at Camp East Montana, a large tent-style immigration detention facility at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. The report says the camp was opened in August before construction was complete and that required oversight to ensure sanitary conditions and adequate medical care was not performed. Three detainee deaths have occurred within six months, including a 55-year-old Cuban migrant whose death was linked to being restrained by guards; evidence related to that incident was described as “missing or destroyed.”

The GAO found that the contractor, Acquisition Logistics, lacked experience operating detention facilities and failed to meet ICE standards at opening. Deficiencies included absent perimeter cameras, inadequate wheelchair accessibility, non-compliant showers, delayed opening of recreation, law library, visitation and attorney-meeting spaces, and insufficient daily cleaning of dormitories. The facility also did not conduct required tuberculosis skin tests, relying instead on questionnaires, which allowed an infected detainee to mingle with the general population and trigger an outbreak.

Financial oversight was also criticized. The Army and ICE paid for guard services, medical care, transportation and meals for a maximum capacity of 5,000 detainees even when the actual population was roughly one-third of that level, resulting in millions of dollars of unnecessary spending.

DHS spokesperson Lauren Bis said a new contractor will be appointed to “allow Camp East Montana to continue abiding by the highest detention standards with the ability to provide more medical care on-site.”

Sen. Dick Durbin, ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, called the findings “damning” and said they reveal “dangerous and irresponsible” aspects of the administration’s immigration enforcement policies.

The report also documented previously undisclosed incidents, such as a detainee escape in October attributed to contractor oversight failures and a lost loaded firearm in January that was never recovered. Additional concerns included inadequate health assessments, limited vision panels in medical holding rooms, and the use of cookies as incentives for detainees to clean their own rooms.

An ICE Office of Professional Responsibility investigation into the January death of Geraldo Lunas Campos is on hold pending a criminal probe by the FBI. The GAO’s review was initiated at the request of Democratic members of the House and Senate.