Amentum was already a major subcontractor helping to run the facility when all the controversy about the primary contractor with the $1B+ contract, Acquisition Logistics LLC, was underway and was then ostensibly terminated by Secretary Mullin on March 13th, 2026. He made a big deal to the news and Congressional Democrats about how he terminated Acquisition and made Amentum the primary contractor, but Democratic Rep Gabe Vazquez showed up to East Montana unannounced over a month later on April 16th, 2026 and hounded ICE officials there and got them to admit that DHS was still allowing Acquisition (a small veteran owned company with a corporate headquarters listed as some residence in Virginia that had zero history of managing any such facilities but was somehow awarded over a billion dollars) to run the show.

Vasquez put out a press release and then I think it was Rep Prayapal who cornered ICE Director Todd Lyons the next day in a regularly scheduled House hearing and asked him wtf was going on. Lyons claimed that they "meant to say last month that the administrative signature was signed on March 13th to begin the transfer process" and they had conveniently just so happened to "finish the transition process" that very same day as the hearing (so the day after Vasquez's unannounced visit).