Audit: ICE wasted millions, imperiled camp detainees

What happened

A federal audit released Tuesday detailed waste, neglect and deadly abuse at ICE’s largest immigration detention facility, Camp East Montana in Texas. The Government Accountability Office’s report attributed most of the camp’s “significant, pervasive issues” to ICE and the Army awarding an expedited $1.3 billion contract to a company with no experience running detention facilities. The mismanagement was found to have“created unsafe conditions that contributed to detainee deaths and suffering” and “millions of wasted tax dollars,” The Associated Press said.

Who said what

ICE wasted up to $11.5 million on meals and other services before the first detainees arrived at the desert tent camp in August, the report said, and a guard lost a loaded firearm that was never found. Three detainees have died in custody, and in the case of Geraldo Lunas Campos — ruled a homicide by the medical examiner — the contractor failed to provide ICE with required use-of-force reports, and evidence “was missing or destroyed.”

What next?

“Camp East Montana needs to be shut down, the contractor investigated” and “the crime of destruction of evidence referred to law enforcement,” Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas) said in a statement. A Homeland Security Department spokesperson said that “far from closing, Camp East Montana is upgrading” under a new contractor.

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