The Department of Homeland Security has swapped out the company in charge of the nation’s largest immigration detention camp where three detainees have died including one by homicide after a scuffle with guards.
Camp East Montana, located on the Fort Bliss Army post in El Paso, Texas, is the tent farm hastily built by private companies to hold up to 5,000 immigrants in detention.
The original $1.3 billion government contract to stand up the camp went to Acquisition Logistics, a small company that listed a home in central Virginia as its headquarters.
Scripps News shared complaints from detainees about lack of medical care and overall conditions at the detention site beginning shortly after it opened last summer.
It also is where a government inspection report found 49 violations of national detention standards.
RELATED STORY | Inspection finds 49 violations at nation's largest ICE detention center
Three detainees have died while in custody at Camp East Montana.
Geraldo Lunas Campos died after what ICE said was a “spontaneous use of force” by guards on duty trying to stop him from ending his life. A local medical examiner ruled the death was a homicide.
DHS has now given the Camp East Montana contract to Amentum Services in a handover that occurred without any public bidding.
Amentum’s parent company, Amentum Holdings Inc., has more than 50,000 employees spread over more than 70 countries. The company, based in Chantilly, Va., has earned billions of dollars worth of other government contracts over the years mostly with the Defense Department.
The company does not appear to have experience running a civilian detention camp.
Amentum’s various companies have racked up 112 federal regulatory violations over the years, including one for a 2024 fatal workplace accident in Virginia and a 2023 OSHA citation for exposing employees to toxic vapors at CIA headquarters.
A report about Camp East Montana’s contractors by the nonprofit government watchdog group Public Citizen argues DHS is replacing one troubled contractor with another company that may endanger civilians in government care.
"Amentum couldn't even protect the safety and health of federal workers and now they're going to be charged with protecting the safety and health of thousands of immigrant detainees,” said Douglas Pasternak, research director for Public Citizen. “Maybe time will tell. Maybe they do a great job and clean things up. But their history really points to potential problems.”
Scripps News reached out to Amentum multiple times for comment but did not get a response.
The company has contested some of its OSHA citations, according to publicly available records.
The government has never disclosed all the subcontractors working at Camp East Montana, but over the past year the Scripps News ICE Inc. investigation has identified many of them.
ICE Inc. | Scripps News investigates immigration detention centers around the country
OSHA records show a Florida-based company called Base International received a citation after the death of a worker who was helping to construct the detention site last summer.
A Base International spokesman said they are appealing the ruling because “there was no wrongdoing by the company.” He declined to answer Scripps News' questions about the company and another subcontractor, Disaster Management Group.
Business registration records in Florida show two companies are linked. Scripps News previously confirmed that Disaster Management Group built the soft-sided structures at Camp East Montana.
In a November 2025 report, detainees told Scripps News that during heavy rains, the bunk rooms would leak.
“It’s terrible that all the people on the top bunk beds get wet,” a detainee said.
Both Disaster Management Group and Base International list Nathan Albers as CEO. FEC records show he has donated $339,218 to Republican candidates ahead of the 2026 election.
The spokesman for Disaster Management Group and Base International declined to answer a list of questions about Albers and the companies he leads.
DHS has repeatedly defended conditions at Camp East Montana and says it abides by the highest detention standards.
A statement from the agency said Amentum earned the Camp East Montana contract because of its “size, maturity and pedigree.”
“This new contractor will allow Camp East Montana to continue abiding by the highest detention standards WITH the ability to provide MORE medical care on-site,” the statement says. “This contract also allows more on-site staff and a PRECISE quality assurance surveillance plan. ICE will have even more oversight of the contractors at this facility. Far from closing, Camp East Montana is upgrading.”
The statement is an about-face from earlier claims by DHS that there was not a lack of medical care at Camp East Montana despite claims to the contrary from detainees, attorneys and their families.
