Story perspectives

GAO Flags $11.5M Waste, 3 Deaths Prompt Shutdown Call

6/11/2026

Summary

Story summary

GAO report found the $1.3 billion contract spent $11.5 million on guards, medical care and meals before any detainees arrived.
Rep. Veronica Escobar called for the facility’s shutdown and a contractor investigation.
The Army rushed the Fort Bliss center to finish in 2025 for President Donald Trump’s deportation plan, hiring a low-cost contractor with no detention-facility experience.
Harsh conditions at the 5,000-person site have been reported, with three detainee deaths confirmed.

History

Historical Context

In 2002 President George W. Bush opened the Guantanamo Bay detention camp on the U.S. lease established in 1903. Detainees filed habeas petitions that the Supreme Court affirmed in Rasul v. Bush (June 2004) and Boumediene v. Bush (2008), leading to more than 200 writs. These rulings have kept the facility at the center of ongoing civil-liberty and oversight debates.

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Story summary

GAO report found the $1.3 billion contract spent $11.5 million on guards, medical care and meals before any detainees arrived.
Rep. Veronica Escobar called for the facility’s shutdown and a contractor investigation.
The Army rushed the Fort Bliss center to finish in 2025 for President Donald Trump’s deportation plan, hiring a low-cost contractor with no detention-facility experience.
Harsh conditions at the 5,000-person site have been reported, with three detainee deaths confirmed.

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