Military wasted millions on efforts to help with ICE detention facilities, GAO says

The Defense Department wasted millions of dollars on food never eaten and tents never lived in while assisting the Department of Homeland Security’s rush last year to build migrant detention facilities in Texas and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to a government watchdog report.

Across the federal government, billions were wasted purchasing warehouses, rushing contracts and trying to establish detention operations in locations that didn’t meet regulations, were never actually needed or were too expensive, the Government Accountability Office found. Its report, released Thursday, is the second to highlight the overspending that occurred as government officials scrambled to meet the demands of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown that began as soon as he took office in January 2025.

Trump that month called for Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to become the site of a 30,000-bed Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility. The DOD spent $2.85 million to build tents for an initial wave of 5,000 people. However, DHS officials determined the tents did not meet detention standards, so they were taken down and never used, according to the GAO.

Meanwhile, the DOD obligated an additional $68 million from Oct. 1, 2024, the start of fiscal year 2025, to May 31, 2026, for immigration detention. Being obligated does not mean that the money was spent. The Pentagon did not immediately respond to questions about how much of that funding was spent.

Guantanamo has averaged about 16 migrants a day in fiscal year 2026, according to the GAO. As of July 29, there were no migrants housed there, according to the DOD Inspector General’s August report.

In Texas, the Army provided land at Fort Bliss in El Paso for ICE to build its largest detention facility where up to 5,000 migrants can be housed in soft-sided tents. It opened in August 2025 and is known as Camp East Montana because it is located off Montana Avenue.

DHS also requested to use Camp Atterbury, in Indiana, and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, in New Jersey, but dropped the plans in October 2025, according to the GAO.

The GAO released a report in June that found the Army, which was responsible for awarding and managing the contract for Camp East Montana through September 2025, wasted $11.5 million on unneeded services.

When the Army awarded the contract, it did so at a fixed price that always assumed maximum capacity, according to the GAO. It began paying for services, such as food, security and medical care for 1,000 people on Aug. 1, 2025. The contract assumed capacity would climb by 250 people a week until it reached 5,000.

The facility did not detain anyone until Aug. 16, forcing the Army to pay for 15 days of support for no one. The Army paid an extra $423,000 for unneeded meals between Aug. 16 and Sept. 30, because the facility was below its designated capacity.

The Army transferred administration of the Camp East Montana contract to ICE in October 2025.

ICE officials told the GAO that while the contractor was paid the full cost of meals for 5,000 people, it only prepared meals based on the actual daily population.

The GAO recommended in June that the Army assess the acquisition of Camp East Montana and find lessons learned to inform future contracts supporting ICE. The Army agreed to implement the recommendation, and a report is expected in December.