El Paso (AP) – A congressional watchdog says the Border Patrol needlessly spent millions on a little-used immigration detention center in Texas. The adult detention center in Tornillo has been closed since January. A Government Accountability Office report says immigration officials paid $5.3 million for meals that were not needed as part of a fixed contract for 2,500 detainees. The office says the facility never had more than 68 at any one time. On average, each detainee had eight guards. The Department of Homeland Security, defending the spending, is saying it would have been worse to close the facility too early, and force immigrants into inadequate locations.
