The Department of Homeland Security said it is re-evaluating the future of the largest immigrant detention center in the country just seven months after it opened at Fort Bliss outside El Paso, Texas.
The tented facility known as Camp East Montana has had a troubled history starting with a fatal construction accident and three detainee deaths in less than six weeks, one of which was ruled a homicide. There have also been outbreaks of both tuberculosis and measles.
“ICE is always looking at ways to improve our detention facilities to ensure we are providing the best care to illegal aliens in our custody,” an agency spokesperson said in an email.
She added that the contract for the facility “was inherited” from the Defense Department. “DHS undergoes rigorous audits and inspections of our facilities to ensure they are meeting our high standards. DHS is reviewing this facility and contract. No decisions have been made related to contract extension, termination, or award,” the spokesperson wrote.
The detention center houses almost 3,000 immigrants as of mid-February and the vast majority, 82%, have no criminal histories, according to ICE data.
On Tuesday, ICE confirmed that 14 detainees at Camp East Montana tested positive for measles. The disease is highly contagious and those infected have been “cohorted and separated from the rest of the detained population to prevent further spread,” the spokesperson said.
More than 100 other people have been isolated in connection with the outbreak, said Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, whose El Paso district includes the detention center. She added that Camp East Montana is closed to lawyers and visitors because of the outbreak.
The Fort Bliss facility was built and has been operated by Acquisition Logistics, a small government contractor out of Richmond, Virginia, that won the $1.2 billion ICE contract in July. The firm’s largest previous federal contract was for $16 million.
The company’s website is still bare-bones with a banner that says “Site maintenance in progress.”
Its CEO is a 77-year-old man named Kenneth Wagner who appears to run the business out of his private home. Previous attempts to reach Wagner have been unsuccessful.
ICE is in the process of a $38 billion expansion of its detention centers nationwide, according to internal ICE documents. To do this, the agency is buying mega warehouses across the country and plans to use them to boost the number of people who are arrested and detained nationally from 70,000 to 160,000. NBC News was first to report on the warehouse expansion in November.
In January, ICE purchased a warehouse for more than $120 million outside El Paso, not far from Camp East Montana.
Two DHS contractors have expressed skepticism of ICE’s plans to house more than 8,000 detainees per center. They said housing more than 1,500 people in any facility is risky.
Charlotte Weiss from the Texas Civil Rights Project has been visiting the facility almost weekly and has raised concerns about what she says is a lack of food, excessive use of force and inadequate health care. She said the detention center is not scheduled to reopen to visitors until mid-March because of the measles outbreak.
Weiss is hopeful DHS will close the facility for good: “We have been calling for it to be shut down from the very beginning and more so because the government has been on notice on these issues for three months.”
The Washington Post reported Wednesday that DHS was considering closing Camp East Montana.
