US troops face ‘unsanitary’ border condition, watchdog finds

The US Army's Fort Bliss base in El Paso, Texas. (Bloomberg)

Some US Army troops posted along the southern border as part of the Trump administration’s heightened immigration enforcement efforts are living under substandard conditions in Texas and New Mexico, according to a report by the Pentagon’s inspector general.

The problems include “leaking raw sewage, non-functional toilets, and general disrepair of facilities,” according to the report published Wednesday and signed by Bryan Clark, assistant inspector general for evaluations.

The document included a photograph said to show “a dried layer of raw sewage that was leaking from the bathroom toilets.” In addition, the report’s authors said, “multiple soldiers living in the barracks informed us of electrical capacity concerns and continually nonfunctioning air conditioning.”

The troops affected are part of the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team — a Colorado unit deployed to Fort Bliss, Texas, and the Doña Ana Range Complex in New Mexico, according to the report. The unit mobilized about 2,400 soldiers in a high-profile deployment to assist Customs and Border personnel from Yuma, Arizona to Big Bend National Park in Texas.

“Additionally, during our site visits we observed unsanitary conditions in bathroom facilities at Fort Bliss and the Doña Ana Range Complex housing facilities,” the authors wrote.

The inspector general’s office, according to the report, notified US Northern Command and Joint Task Force Southern Border about “health and safety concerns for housing conditions,” adding that it would be issuing a “management advisory” about the findings.

Management Advisories, unlike standard audits, are designed to more quickly alert officials about an immediate, acute problem that requires rapid attention.

The report may be used by critics of President Donald Trump’s decision to engage the military in immigration operations, but it also provides fodder for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who in October created a task force to identify and improve substandard housing.

In addition to the bathroom conditions, the Wednesday report also found that some soldiers were housed in barracks with as little “as 45 square feet per soldier living space,” less than the required 72 square feet (6.7 square meters).

The inspector general said it had asked Northern Command to “provide comments within 30 days describing the specific actions” it will take “to develop and implement a plan with milestones that ensures soldiers assigned” to the Southern Border Task Force “have adequate housing conditions” that meet minimum standards.

In a statement, the Army’s office of public affairs said that as of October, soldiers at Fort Bliss are living in facilities that meet Pentagon requirements and that none were living at the Doña Ana facility as of early November.

It said Southwest Task Force officials regularly assess living facilities along the border “as this is an evolving, novel operational mission that requires commanders to dynamically move units.”

“We continue to ensure compliance with habitability and quality-of-life standards,” it said. “When we find deficiencies, we will move quickly to thoroughly address them.”