GAO warns detention camp failures could become a blueprint for billions in new spending
From GovExec.com
The watchdog found contracting missteps, health lapses and oversight breakdowns at a Texas immigration facility, raising concerns as the federal government moves ahead with a far larger detention expansion.
ARIANA FIGUEROA
hastily constructed immigrant detention facility on a military base in Texas wasted millions in federal funding and failed to meet basic standards, according to a report released Tuesday by a nonpartisan government watchdog.
The report by the Government Accountability Office documenting problems at Camp East Montana is one of the first independent investigations into a facility quickly constructed from the $170 billion in immigration enforcement and detention funding provided by Republicans’ "big beautiful" law 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 in August 2025 set up the soft-sided detention site of Camp East Montana at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. It was intended to hold as many as 5,000 immigrants and is still operating under a private contractor as well as ICE.
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… camp.
"Preventable 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 wrote its own performance standards," Congressman Jack Reed said.
More: https://www.govexec.com/management/2026/06/gao-warns-detention-camp-failures-could-become-blueprint-billions-new-spending/414068/