An aerial view of Camp East Montana, an immigrant detention center in El Paso, Texas. (Photo courtesy of the Government Accountability Office)
WASHINGTON — A hastily constructed immigration detention center at a military base in Texas wasted millions in federal funds and failed to meet basic standards, according to a report released Tuesday by a nonpartisan government watchdog agency.
The report The Government Accountability Office’s documentation of the problems at the East Montana camp is one of the first independent investigations into a facility quickly built using $170 billion in immigration enforcement and detention funds provided by the Republicans’ Big Beautiful Act, enacted in July 2025 as part of the president’s mass deportation campaign. The camp is considered the largest immigrant detention center in the United States.
The Department of Defense and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement established the Camp East Montana secure detention site at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, in August 2025. It was intended to accommodate up to 5,000 immigrants and is currently operated by a private contractor in addition to ICE.
The facility has been plagued by several cases of tuberculosis and at least four inmate deaths, one of which was ruled a homicide by the local coroner. The American Civil Liberties Union Lawsuit filed against the government for inhumane conditions.
“The facility also failed to meet key detention standards, endangering the safety of detained noncitizens and staff,” the GAO said.
The report came as the U.S. House of Representatives prepared the final steps to pass a bill this week $70 billion package to fund immigration enforcement through the end of fiscal year 2029. President Donald Trump is expected to sign the bill.
Congressional Democrats called on the GAO to produce a report on Camp East Montana, including Senators Dick Durbin of Illinois, Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Gary Peters of Michigan, and Representative Bennie Thomspon of Mississippi.
Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement that he was concerned that the U.S. military was responsible for the rapid construction of the detention center.
“Avoidable deaths, inhumane conditions and millions of dollars in waste are the direct result of the Pentagon cutting corners and handing a billion-dollar contract to an inexperienced vendor that writes its own performance standards,” Reed said.
$1.3 billion contract
GAO investigators found that the Defense Department’s contracting tool used to handle the $1.3 billion Camp East Montana contract failed to provide flexibility and resulted in meals and employee benefits being paid during times when no immigrants were being held at the facility, resulting in millions of dollars in waste.
For example, from Aug. 1, 2025, to Aug. 15, 2025, when there were no detainees at the facility, the Army paid the full cost of guards, medical services, transportation, meals and other services, wasting up to $11.5 million, the GAO said.
“In addition, because the Army set a fixed price for meals based on facility capacity, it paid approximately $423,000 for meals it did not need when the facility operated below its designed capacity from August 16, 2025, to September 30, 2025,” the GAO report said.
The same mistakes could be repeated, GAO says
GAO investigators also found that the same mistakes could be made in the Department of Homeland Security’s ongoing initiative to spend $38 billion to convert warehouses to hold thousands of immigrants.
“GAO notes that ICE’s planned facility expansion — a $38 billion program to convert warehouses into detention centers using the same contract vehicle — risks repeating each of these mistakes on a dramatically larger scale,” the report said.
Investigators made four recommendations, including that ICE consider tiered food pricing to account for fluctuations in the population of detained immigrants and that ICE ensure fresh facilities meet detention standards before housing immigrants.
The report notes that DHS and DOD agreed with the recommendations. The Defense Department deferred comment to DHS, which did not immediately respond to States Newsroom’s request for comment.
Murder investigated
Investigators also raised concerns about utilize of force, including one in January in which an autopsy determined an inmate’s death was due to asphyxiation and classified it as a homicide.
“However, the contractor did not provide ICE with use-of-force and fatality reports as required,” the report said. “In addition, evidence related to the incident was missing or destroyed.”
Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, called the GAO report “damning.”
“We now know even more details about how dangerous and irresponsible the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign really is,” he said in a statement. “Excessive use of force, lack of medical and mental health care, and wasted taxpayer dollars are emblematic of this mass deportation effort. The American people have rightly expressed their outrage at this policy, and it is time to hold ICE and its private contractors accountable.”
GAO investigators found several health problems. They pointed out that none of the prisoners with HIV or diabetes had treatment plans.
Additionally, facility staff did not follow proper tuberculosis screening procedures. A contractor used a questionnaire instead of conducting required skin testing for tuberculosis.
Investigators determined that a detained immigrant with tuberculosis was subsequently placed with the general immigrant population in November.
