The Department of Homeland Security plans to keep a private contractor running the nation’s largest immigration detention center into late 2028 without seeking competing bids, according to a revised federal justification reviewed by Project Salt Box.
The extension would raise the estimated value of Amentum Services Inc.’s contract at Camp East Montana, a tent camp on the Fort Bliss Army post in El Paso, Texas, to about $2.8 billion.
That is more than double the $1.2 billion The Associated Press reported in July that Amentum stood to be paid for running the camp from March 2026 through September 2027.
Throughout the filing, the camp is called a temporary facility, and officials say they are still weighing whether to replace it.
The cost of running the camp would rise over time. The first seven months would cost about $477 million, or roughly $68 million a month. By the final six months, the cost would reach about $97 million a month. Another $57 million in the document is redacted with no explanation.
ICE’s contracting office argues that only Amentum can do the work because the company owns the camp’s housing units, generators, security systems, and kitchen equipment. Officials also point to a nationwide shortage of detention beds. Amentum was the only company to express interest after a notice in March, according to the filing. That notice told companies it was not a request for competitive quotes. How Amentum came to own the equipment is never explained.
Amentum, based in Chantilly, Va., had been a subcontractor to Acquisition Logistics, which won the Army’s original contract on July 18, 2025. Acquisition Logistics, a small business, had never won a federal contract worth more than $16 million. ICE took over the contract in October 2025, later ended it, and in March gave Amentum a $453 million no-bid contract. DHS said Amentum was picked for its “size, maturity and pedigree.”
Three detainees have died at the camp since it opened in August 2025. They are Francisco Gaspar-Andres, 48, of Guatemala; Geraldo Lunas Campos, 55, of Cuba; and Victor Manuel Diaz, 36, of Nicaragua.
The Government Accountability Office — the investigative arm of Congress — found that evidence in Lunas Campos’ death was missing or destroyed.
ICE posted a preliminary review of Lunas Campos’ death to its online FOIA library, along with 32 other redacted reviews of detainee deaths. Project Salt Box downloaded the reviews on Sept. 26. Two days later, they were no longer on the site, and the organization archived copies that afternoon.
The review, dated Jan. 16, says Lunas Campos had wrapped a sweatshirt around his neck and resisted guards who tried to handcuff him, and that the guards then used force. It does not describe what they did. About seven minutes later, nurses who had come to hand out medications found him without a pulse. The El Paso County medical examiner later ruled his death a homicide caused by pressure on his neck and torso. ICE did not respond to a request for comment about the review.
An ICE inspection in February found 49 violations of detention standards, including inadequate medical care and failures to document checks meant to prevent self-harm and suicide. The GAO later found that ICE did not inspect the camp before detainees arrived, and that a security guard lost a loaded gun in January. The GAO also reported a detainee escape in October 2025 that ICE blamed on the contractor’s oversight failures.
ICE’s case for the no-bid deal cites the February inspection as one reason the agency had to act quickly. Even so, the justification blacks out how many problems inspectors found and what they were, details the agency had already made public.
The GAO also found that the original contract required ICE to pay for meals and services for 5,000 people, even when the camp held far fewer. At the end of February, it held about 1,600.
In June, the GAO told the government to take four steps in response to what it found at the camp. None has been completed.
The GAO said ICE should pay based on how many people are actually held at its detention centers, instead of paying for empty beds. It said ICE should inspect new detention centers before sending anyone to them. And it said the Army and DHS should each study what went wrong at Camp East Montana so the same mistakes are not repeated.
DHS agreed. It promised that by the end of the year, ICE would pay for Camp East Montana based on the number of detainees.
But the new plan for Amentum lists a set price for each month and does not mention paying by the number of detainees. DHS also said it already has a rule requiring inspections before a center opens. The GAO pointed out that ICE did not follow that rule at Camp East Montana.
Neither study is done, and the Army does not expect to finish its study until Dec. 30.
That's just bullsh!t We've got to tear them all down when we have the power to do so and build memorial sites to those who have suffered and survived such a terrible example of inhumanity.
Yank their funds! How do we get that done?