ICE Admits Mistakes in Expansion for Mass Deportation - Newsweek
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) wasted more than $20 million on warehouses it now plans to sell, according to a new government watchdog report, raising fresh questions about the Trump administration’s expansion of immigration detention capacity.
The agency purchased 11 warehouses nationwide between January and April for about $1.07 billion, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). By June, however, ICE was working with the General Services Administration to sell seven of them.
ICE reported spending $7.7 million on nonrecoverable costs, including zoning assessments and title insurance, for the seven warehouses it intends to sell. It had also spent an estimated $12.8 million on utilities, security and other services at those properties as of August. Together, those costs exceed $20 million, money GAO says ICE cannot recover.
"ICE pursued its detention expansion initiatives without developing a comprehensive strategic plan to guide its efforts," the report said.
Newsweek contacted the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, for comment via email and is awaiting a response.
The expansion has been fueled by a massive influx of funding from Congress. President Donald Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law on July 4, 2025, providing roughly $170 billion in additional funding for immigration and border enforcement. That included $45 billion to expand ICE detention capacity and nearly $30 billion more for the agency’s arrest and deportation operations, giving ICE unprecedented resources to carry out the administration’s mass-deportation campaign.
The watchdog found that the agency invested billions of dollars across six detention-expansion initiatives without conducting what GAO said was "necessary analysis and planning."
The potential losses could be even larger. ICE paid about $707 million for the seven warehouses, and GAO said selling them for less than their purchase price would add to the more than $20 million in nonrecoverable costs already incurred.
The warehouse expansion plan was developed under former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who was ousted from the post in March. Her successor, Markwayne Mullin, subsequently moved to re-evaluate the strategy and scrutinize warehouse purchases made during her tenure.
ICE began the warehouse initiative in December 2025, when the agency, at the direction of senior Department of Homeland Security leadership, began purchasing and renovating warehouses for detention operations.
ICE initially announced plans to open 24 warehouse facilities by November 2026. Sixteen were intended to serve as regional processing centers, while eight were planned as large-scale detention facilities.
In June, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said DHS was reevaluating the warehouse detention model because the department had not conducted appropriate due diligence and planning, according to GAO.
That same month, ICE officials told GAO they were working with the General Services Administration to sell seven of the 11 warehouses.
The four warehouses ICE intends to keep have also generated significant expenses.
In March, ICE awarded renovation and operating contracts for warehouses in Hagerstown, Maryland, and Surprise, Arizona, obligating $113 million and $313 million for renovations, respectively, according to GAO.
Plans to convert both facilities into immigration detention centers were largely on hold as of September because of legal challenges.
In Maryland, the state attorney general sued DHS over the Hagerstown project, including allegations involving required environmental reviews. A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction in April halting construction and renovation.
Arizona's attorney general separately sued DHS over the Surprise facility. Arizona and DHS later agreed to pause efforts to convert the property into a detention center while environmental reviews were completed, according to GAO.
ICE efforts have included expanding or acquiring detention facilities as the number of people in immigration custody has risen. 65,765 people were being held in ICE custody as of July 11, 2026, according to data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC).
The watchdog said the lack of a comprehensive strategy creates a risk that ICE will continue spending money on initiatives that later have to be scaled back or abandoned.
GAO recommended that ICE develop a strategic plan establishing its goals and resource needs and assessing the costs and risks of detention investments before committing additional funds.
DHS agreed with the recommendation, but told GAO that ICE does not expect to complete the plan until August 31, 2027, the report said.
GAO said that timeline may not be fast enough, given the scale of ICE's detention funding and the potential for continued waste.
"Running ICE detention is one of the hardest jobs in the federal government. Few agencies are told to grow this fast. Beds, contracts, medical coverage, and transport all had to scale together," Kyle Milowski, a retired ICE agent, told Newsweek.
"This is government oversight in action—take the findings, drop what failed, and keep the mission moving while the next plan gets written. DHS accepted and acted on the recommendations. Albeit, not as quickly as GAO would like. All things considered, the true test has always been ICE's execution under pressure. While it has never been perfect, it's very impressive for a federal agency of that size."
In June, GAO reported that planning and contracting problems at Camp East Montana in Texas had resulted in "millions of dollars in waste." GAO found that the government was paying the full cost of meals and other services for 5,000 people even when the facility held far fewer detainees.
Earlier this month, the DHS Office of Inspector General released two reports following unannounced inspections of detention facilities in Florida. At Alligator Alcatraz, the watchdog found that detainees were not provided "sufficient living space" and that 79 detainees had been confined in "small metal enclosures" for periods ranging from several minutes to nearly two hours.
At the Krome North Service Processing Center in Miami, the inspector general identified separate problems involving showers, paperwork, food preparation, and responses to detainee requests.
Terrell County, Texas, Sheriff Thaddeus Cleveland, a Republican, told Newsweek: "As a sheriff and retired Border Patrol agent, I strongly support border security, but supporting border security does not mean giving the federal government a blank check.
"My county depends heavily on border security grants, and we account for every penny. Taxpayers should expect the same accountability from Washington. Every dollar wasted through poor planning is a dollar that could have gone toward agents, equipment, technology, or local communities working every day to secure the border."
