Montana
Child care challenges continue in Montana
HELENA — Child care is a tricky issue. A conference in Helena brought together industry leaders throughout the state to address the issues faced by businesses and parents alike.
“For parents, it’s an expensive service. A lot of parents rely on child care. So, when they don’t have access to child care then they’re not able to participate in the workforce, which has a big impact on our local and statewide economy,” says Caitlin Jensen, Executive Director at Zero to Five Montana.
The Montana Child Care Business Connect Summit aims to support child care businesses and address issues faced by the industry and parents.
Jessica Dehn owns 11 child care centers in Montana, Washington, and North Dakota and was at the conference on Wednesday. She’s found it difficult to balance keeping her prices affordable and paying her employees a living wage, especially in cities like Bozeman.
“Wages have gone up at my facilities about 50% or more, sometimes 100% depending on the role, over the last four years. And it’s still not necessarily a living wage in Bozeman, Montana,” says Dehn.
Dehn adds that she helps bridge the affordability gap through scholarships for qualifying families, but that the funding for those scholarships comes from inside the company. Covid relief that helped offset that burden is disappearing. She is also looking at other ways to offset costs, like partnerships with other businesses. She’ll be headed to Washington D.C. soon to possibly speak with lawmakers about other possible solutions.
“For the time being, I think the wins will be in the business sector more quickly, and helping government to see the state of the Montana economy is reliant upon this as well. I think people know that intellectually, but when it comes down to individual pocketbooks or funding like different budgets of different organizations at the state that gets more challenging,” says Dehn.
Other organizations are also working to provide parents with additional childcare options. The Helena Family YMCA has offered summer camps and after-school care in previous years but is preparing to launch before-school care and looking for a new space to host child care during work hours. The Y supports many low-income families, saying about 56% of their after-school children receive Best Beginnings child care scholarships.
Ashley Callison, Senior Youth Development Director at Helena Family YMCA, says child care is an essential cornerstone of our society.
“Just that it’s really important work and it’s valuable work that I think gets overseen a lot. And people don’t realize what a vital role that child care is in families lives and in our society because that’s how parents get to work every day and someone has to care for their kiddos and help them have great experiences throughout their childhood,” says Callison.
Montana
Escobar, Jayapal, Members of Congress Call on Camp East Montana to be Shut Down – Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal
(Washington, D.C.) – Today, Congresswoman Veronica Escobar (TX-16) – joined by Representative Pramila Jayapal, the Ranking Member of the Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement Subcommittee, and 22 other Members of Congress – sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director Todd Lyons calling for the immediate closure of Camp East Montana in El Paso. They cite urgent humanitarian concerns following multiple deaths in custody, documented unsafe conditions, and serious deficiencies in medical care.
This marks the fourth letter Congresswoman Escobar has sent to DHS and ICE leadership. The previous three letters have gone unanswered.
The letter can be found in its entirety below and here.
“Secretary Noem and Acting Director Lyons:
We are urgently calling on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS or the Department) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to shut down Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas.
Camp East Montana has been operational for six months, and at least three people have died at the site since December 2025: Francisco Gaspar-Andres, Geraldo Lunas Campos, and Victor Manuel Diaz. The El Paso County Medical Examiner has officially ruled Lunas Campos’ death a homicide, citing “asphyxia due to neck and torso compression.”
Camp East Montana was constructed in a matter of weeks and opened before construction was complete and it does not have enough federal staff on-site to provide adequate oversight. Over the last several months, Congresswoman Veronica Escobar, in whose district this facility is located, has sent multiple letters to DHS and ICE regarding concerns about the conditions at Camp East Montana, and has received no responses.
According to detainees, there have been constant and consistent problems at the facility since it opened, beginning with the facility’s poor construction and poor ambient temperature control. Upon opening, the drinking water at Camp East Montana tasted foul and made some detainees sick. Detainees continue to be served inadequate meals, including food that is rotten or frozen; last fall, the facility was also consistently failing to make dietary accommodations for detainees. Detainees have shared that they have sporadic access to outside spaces and recreational areas, and that their dormitory pods are cleaned only once every eight days, despite pods housing up to 72 people at a time. Laundry services are not consistent, and people are washing their clothes in the facility showers. Additionally, the facility experiences flooding and sewage backups when it rains, leading to stagnant water.
One of the biggest concerns with the Camp East Montana facility is the inadequate medical care being provided to detainees. Our offices have heard that only the most ill detainees are referred to the medical unit and that there are inconsistencies as to how soon after arriving detainees are able to undergo initial medical screenings. Detainees with chronic health issues who rely on regimented medications for their health have had difficulty accessing necessary medications, including blood pressure medication and insulin.
At least one of the deaths that occurred in ICE custody, the death of Francisco Gaspar-Andres, appears to partially be the result of poor medical care by staff at the facility. According to ICE’s own account, Gaspar-Andres sought medical attention from facility staff for increasingly serious symptoms, but was only transferred to an area hospital once his condition had severely deteriorated.
In addition to our concerns about poor medical care, we are also aware that detainees have experienced irregular access to their legal counsel, including instances of detainees having only two minutes allotted per phone call every 8 days, which is contrary to ICE’s Detention Standards on access to counsel, and that the belatedly created law library lacks adequate resources for the amount of people currently held at the facility. In January 2026, ICE announced the on-site death of Geraldo Lunas Campos “after experiencing medical distress.” ICE opened an investigation into the death, but did not provide a cause of death. However, The Washington Post later reported that another man detained at Camp East Montana had witnessed guards choking Lunas Campos when he refused to enter a segregated housing unit. Weeks later, the El Paso County Medical Examiner ruled that Lunas Campos had experienced “asphyxia due to neck and torso compression” and ruled his death a homicide.
Lunas Campos is the first detainee to die at Camp East Montana as a result of a use-of-force incident, but we are strongly concerned that he will not be the last if ICE is allowed to continue operating Camp East Montana.
ICE was given $45 billion in taxpayer dollars in the reconciliation bill, $1.2 billion of which were awarded to Acquisition Logistics, LLC, a company with no previous experience managing immigration detention facilities, to build and oversee Camp East Montana. However, in the wake of three deaths in custody so far, continued concerns about conditions at the facility, and ICE’s apparent disinterest in responding to oversight letters from Congress, we do not believe Camp East Montana is being run professionally or responsibly.
Camp East Montana must be shut down. For the safety of everyone at the facility, for an end to abuses to detainees, and for fiscal responsibility to the American people, the site cannot continue to operate. We are calling on DHS and ICE to move to immediately close operations at Camp East Montana.
We look forward to hearing from the Department promptly on this matter.
The other co-signers include Representatives Yassamin Ansari, Nanette Barragán, Yvette Clarke, Lloyd Doggett, Maxwell Frost, Jesús “Chuy” García, Sylvia Garcia, Daniel Goldman, Jimmy Gomez, Henry Johnson, Stephen Lynch, Seth Moulton, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Delia Ramirez, Andrea Salinas, Janice Schakowsky, Darren Soto, Rashida Tlaib, Paul Tonko, Lauren Underwood, Gabe Vasquez, and Nydia Velázquez.
Issues: Immigration
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