GAO finds unsafe conditions, waste at Fort Bliss migrant detention center

A massive detention complex at Fort Bliss consumed $1.3 billion in Army contracting and still opened without key safeguards, according to a federal review that tied rushed planning to unsafe conditions and wasted taxpayer money. Camp East Montana, in El Paso, Texas, became U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s largest detention facility to date, with room for about 5,000 detained noncitizens by April 2026.

The Government Accountability Office said the Army and ICE pushed the project onto an expedited schedule that hurt planning and acquisition. The facility opened in August 2025 before construction was complete, and ICE did not inspect it before housing detained people there, even though agency policy required that step.

What followed was a string of failures that went far beyond poor housekeeping. The facility initially lacked perimeter security cameras, outdoor recreation space, and space for attorney and family visitation. After it opened, ICE reported gaps in medical services, unsanitary conditions and the loss of a loaded firearm. In January 2026, a guard lost that firearm inside the facility and it was never recovered.

The watchdog also said contractor mistakes undermined health screening. Instead of using proper tuberculosis skin tests, the contractor relied on questionnaires, allowing a detainee with tuberculosis into the general population and helping set off an outbreak. GAO said a detainee escaped in October 2025 because of contractor oversight problems.

The report said the consequences were not abstract. Three detainees died in little more than six months, including a 55-year-old Cuban migrant who died in January after being restrained by guards. GAO said evidence in that death case was missing or destroyed, a finding that raises hard questions about accountability inside a facility funded at enormous scale.

The waste was just as stark. GAO said the Army paid the full cost for meals and services from August 1 to August 15, 2025, even though no detained noncitizens were at the site. The watchdog said ICE could save tens of millions of dollars through September 2026 through contract changes such as tiered meal pricing, but those savings had not been built into the new deal after ICE terminated the original contract for convenience in April 2026 and selected a new contractor.

The report was requested by Dick Durbin, Jack Reed, Gary Peters and Bennie Thompson, who said the findings showed hurried contracting, inadequate medical care and preventable deaths. Durbin said ICE had about 65,000 people in custody nationwide and reported 32 deaths in 2025, the most in more than two decades. The Department of Homeland Security said ICE had already replaced the contractor and that a new operator would help Camp East Montana continue operating to the highest detention standards with more on-site medical care.