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OSHA has cited three subcontractors for safety violations linked to the July 21, 2025, death of Hector Gonzalez, 38, while crews were building Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas, the agency’s enforcement materials and a watchdog report released this week showed. The citations stem from a construction accident in which Gonzalez was crushed by falling materials as contractors raced to complete the immigration detention center, according to the Associated Press.
Federal regulators investigated the fatality to determine whether workplace safety rules were followed, and OSHA ultimately declined to cite Acquisition Logistics, the prime contractor involved at the time of the incident. Instead, OSHA sought penalties against subcontractors that helped build the site: Base International, JMJ Production Services and Fulfillment Personnel Services.
A report released Monday by Public Citizen highlighted the OSHA citations and scrutinized the companies that profited from work at the ICE detention facility. The watchdog report also drew attention to Base International, describing the company as owned by Nathan Albers, a donor to Donald Trump and other Republican political groups, and said Albers is associated with the Trump family.
According to OSHA’s findings, Base International employed Gonzalez and violated a safety standard by exposing workers to “struck-by hazards” from an unstable, elevated load of stacked composite beams on a forklift while supplies were being unloaded. OSHA also cited JMJ Production Services and Fulfillment Personnel Services for violating the same struck-by hazards standard and for failing to ensure employees were certified to operate powered industrial trucks at the site.
In separate settlements reached with OSHA in February, JMJ Production Services and Fulfillment Personnel Services agreed to pay reduced fines of $15,000 for their violations. OSHA’s enforcement database shows Base International, however, is contesting its citation, with OSHA proposing a $11,585 penalty if the dispute proceeds.
A Base International spokesperson, Tom McNicholas, said the company is appealing the ruling and argued there was “no wrongdoing by the company,” according to the Associated Press. OSHA’s proposal would be reviewed in an administrative law judge hearing if the parties do not reach a settlement.
The Camp East Montana project has faced repeated scrutiny since it opened. 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, and the site opened the next month, becoming ICE’s largest detention center for immigrants awaiting or challenging deportation, the AP reported. The camp at times housed more than 3,000 people and has been subject to allegations of inhumane conditions, disease outbreaks and other deaths.
As part of ICE’s later contracting changes, ICE replaced Acquisition Logistics with Amentum Services as the prime contractor in March, after an ICE Office of Detention Oversight inspection in February found dozens of violations of national detention standards. The transition has come amid ongoing concerns raised in prior reporting, including this site’s compliance problems that MSI previously covered in another story about inspection findings about dozens of violations.
Public Citizen’s report described Albers as a close associate of the Trump family and said he donated more than $150,000 to Republican campaigns in 2025, adding that Albers’ wife co-chaired a pet fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago with Lara Trump last month. Juan Munoz, founder and president of JMJ Production Services, told the AP by phone that he could not comment on those allegations and said any response would have to come from attorneys. Fulfillment Personnel Services, based in Mobile, Alabama, did not respond to messages seeking comment.