3 contractors cited for violations in death of worker building major ICE detention camp

Federal regulators have cited three contractors, including one owned by a campaign donor to President Donald Trump, for safety violations stemming from the death of a worker helping build a major immigration detention center last year.

Violations deemed serious by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration were found in its investigation into the July 21, 2025, death of Hector Gonzalez, 38, who was crushed by falling materials in a construction accident as contractors raced to build Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas.

The violations were highlighted in a report released Monday by the watchdog group Public Citizen, which scrutinized the companies profiting from work at the costly but troubled U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center.

Gonzalez’s death came days after the Army awarded a contract worth up to $1.3 billion to Acquisition Logistics to build and operate the camp at Fort Bliss, near the U.S.-Mexico border. The site opened the next month and quickly became ICE’s largest detention center for immigrants awaiting or challenging their deportation, eventually housing more than 3,000 people at times.

The camp has been beset by allegations of inhumane conditions, disease outbreaks and the deaths of three detainees in December and January. A February inspection by ICE’s Office of Detention Oversight found dozens of violations of national standards. ICE replaced Acquisition Logistics, a small Virginia company that had no prior experience running a detention facility, as the prime contractor last month, awarding a no-bid contract to Amentum Services.

“The Trump administration is doling out billions of dollars in taxpayer funds on contracts that have led to the deaths of four people in a six-month period. And things are not likely to improve,” said Public Citizen researcher Douglas Pasternak, who authored Monday’s report.

OSHA investigated Gonzalez’s death, as it does routinely for workplace fatalities, to determine whether safety rules were followed. It ultimately declined to cite Acquisition Logistics but sought penalties against three subcontractors that helped build the camp. The companies — Base International, JMJ Production Services and Fulfillment Personnel Services — were cited in January for violations of safety standards governing the use of powered industrial trucks, records show.

Base International — owned by Florida businessman Nathan Albers, a donor to Trump and other Republican Party politicians and groups in recent years — employed Gonzalez. OSHA found the company violated a safety standard by exposing employees to “struck-by hazards” from an unstable, elevated load of stacked composite beams on a forklift while they were unloading supplies.

The investigation cited the other two companies for violating that standard as well as another by failing to ensure employees were certified to operate powered industrial trucks on the site.

JMJ Production Services and Fulfillment Personnel Services each agreed to pay reduced fines of $15,000 for the violations as part of settlements with OSHA in February. But Base International is contesting its citation, for which OSHA has proposed a $11,585 penalty, the agency’s enforcement database shows. If a settlement is not reached, an administrative law judge will hold a hearing to consider the appeal.

“Base International is appealing the ruling, because there was no wrongdoing by the company,” company spokesperson Tom McNicholas said.

Albers is also CEO of Disaster Management Group, a federal contractor that shares the same Jupiter, Florida, address as Base International.

Public Citizen’s report described Albers as a close associate of the Trump family who donated more than $150,000 to Republican campaigns in 2025. It said Albers’ wife had co-chaired a pet fundraiser at Mar-A-Lago with Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, last month.

Juan Munoz, founder and president of Austin, Texas-based JMJ Production Services, told the AP by phone Friday, “I wish I could talk about that but you’d have to talk to my attorneys.” He didn’t respond to a follow-up email he requested.

Fulfillment Personnel Services, based in Mobile, Alabama, did not respond to phone and email messages seeking comment.