Trump Administration's Billion-Dollar Migrant Detention Deal Surrounded By Controversy, Report Finds

In July, the U.S. government announced it was building a 5,000-person detention camp in El Paso, Texas, and that the Virginia-based firm Acquisition Logistics LLC had been awarded $232 million in Army funds to build the facility.

The decision to grant such a large contract to a relatively unknown company has drawn scrutiny in recent weeks, as the Pentagon refused to release the contract or to explain why it selected the company among over a dozen other bidders.

Experts interviewed by The Associated Press described the government's contracting process as both unusually fast and lacking transparency. This combination, they say, highlights the administration's urgent push to carry out President Donald Trump's plan to arrest and deport roughly 10 million migrants, an approach that has fueled skepticism about the decision-making behind it.

As noted by the AP, Acquisition Logistics LLC, a company that specializes in providing logistics and supply chain management services primarily to Department of Defense agencies, did not have experience running a correction facility prior to being awarded the contract. Additionally, the company had never won a federal contract worth more than $16 million and lacks a functioning website.

According to the Department of Defense, the company received $232 million upfront to begin construction in El Paso, with the total contract valued at $1.24 billion and an estimated completion date in September 2027.

Despite all the red flags, the facility opened its doors on Aug. 1 U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, who toured the facility upon opening, said the detention center is expected to grow to about 5,000 detainees, making it the largest federal detention center for civil detainees in the U.S.

"It is really massive. It is a huge facility that takes a lot of power – a lot of power – to run. And it takes a lot of people," said Escobar.

During her visit to the facility, Escobar expressed concern over the apparent lack of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel, noting it didn't appear that any military staff were involved in operating the detention center.

"I am very concerned that there are not enough ICE personnel who have been trained by the federal government and have done this for a living for their whole career," she said. "I'm concerned that there are not as many federal personnel to provide oversight as we should have."

Without adequate staffing from ICE or other federal agencies, she warned, oversight becomes difficult—especially in private facilities, "that far too frequently are operating with a profit margin in mind as opposed to a governmental facility," she said during a news conference, as reported by El Paso Matters.

According to Joshua Schnell, an attorney specializing in federal contracting law, the administration's limited disclosure surrounding the El Paso facility raises serious concerns about the contract's legitimacy.

"The lack of transparency leads to valid questions about why the Army would award such a substantial contract to a company with no public track record, no website, and no evidence it's capable of handling such a complex operation," Schnell said.

As the AP reported, the Department of Homeland Security repeatedly declined to answer inquiries about the detention center for weeks. But after the outlet published its Aug. 28 article, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin issued a statement saying that "under President Trump's leadership, we are working at turbo speed on cost-effective and innovative ways to deliver on the American people's mandate for mass deportations of criminal illegal aliens."

The outlet also reported that while the Army officially awarded the contract on July 18, construction at the site had begun several weeks earlier and, notably, site work was already underway even before Congress passed President Trump's immigration spending package, which allocated a record $45 billion for detention efforts.

Meanwhile, Gemini Tech Services, one of the 13 companies that bid for the project, filed a formal protest with the U.S. Government Accountability Office, arguing that Acquisition Logistics lacks the experience, staff, and infrastructure to carry out the work. A person familiar with the complaint, who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity, confirmed the challenge.